Fire and Ice
by purpletail
Summary: Dragons, mysterious creatures of power. For two girls dragon blood is very much real, and it courses through their veins. Such power has to be controlled, and then used for the right purposes, but sometimes it isn’t the girl who chooses the dark side.
1. Dragons of Fire and Ice

**I was going to wait to post this story till I had finished Sasha but I couldn't help myself, so here it is my new story about what would happen if me and my best friend ended up on Lyoko. Grace couldn't believe how much my character fit my personality when I showed her the story, I can get extremely competitive and full off myself, but enough of that now I introduce to you Fire and Ice (I remembered that that one of the book in warriors had the same title to it after I though of it.)**

"It feels so good to be back here, doesn't it?" Kristina stretched her red wings; well they were really red with black tips. "Yah it dose, it's been a while hasn't it" Grace replied. "Three years" Kristina specified.

"Something seems different though" Kristina looked around. "You know we found new cards on the super computer" Grace reminded her. "Yah, I'd like to meet these new warriors, and see how much damage they can really do." Kristina smirked, her fangs glistening in the virtual light. "Blasting them to bits is not the way to make friends Kristina" Grace pointed out. "Yah I know doesn't mean I can't want to." Her tail was swaying back and forth with annoyance.

"Someone's coming, new data is being loaded to Lyoko" Grace stood up and looked around. "Let's get an aerial view of the desert, maybe we can spot what was loaded that way" Kristina suggested. Grace nodded "good idea" "I do get them once and a while." Grace rolled her eyes "yah once and a while."

"Oh come on" Kristina jumped off the rock they were sitting on, or in Grace's case standing. "Wait up!" Grace took off after her. "It feels good to have my wings back, three years with out them was to long." Kristina did a barrel roll. "Show off" Grace huffed. Kristina threw a fireball in response.

"Whoa" Grace dodged it. Grace glared at Kristina who was smiling back at her trying to look innocent. "If that's the way you want it" Grace formed a sharp ice chunk in her hand and threw it at Kristina. Kristina easily dodged it. "Dragon senses remember? I knew it was coming"

"Why do you get dragon senses and I don't?" Grace whined. "You got the ability to heal remember?" "Yah, yah" Grace looked annoyed, you can always tell when she gets annoyed because her tail tip starts to turn gray. Her tail tip acts a lot like a mood ring, only it's accurate.

"Laser arrow!" Kristina felt a sharp pain in her left wing and fell to the ground. "God who goes around shooting people like that?" Kristina was ticked. She stood up and examined her wing. "At least you didn't hurt it to bad, the data will regenerate" she then decided to look up to see who it was that shot her.

It was a cat like boy who was holding her at gunpoint. "Kristina you ok?' Grace landed next to her only to have a samurai kid hold his sword at her throat. "I would kindly advise you to put that down" Graces voice was stern but soft. "Why should I?" he asked. "Because I bet you haven't even developed you element powers yet" Grace responded calmly an ice chunk forming in her hand.

The boy obeyed reluctantly and looked the girl up and down. She was apparently a dragon-girl. Her eyes were a sparkling blue with silver around the edge. Her hair was goodish-brown and curly. She wore a light blue halter top belly-shirt with silver around the bottom in the shape of waves. Her pants were simple silver capris and her shoes were blue with silver stripes and ties. She has gloves that go to her elbows that were blue with silver claws, and she also has silver wings as well as a long blue tail with silver spikes along it.

"And I would advise you not to push Kristina she will attack you, Kristina get rid of this." Kristina caught the ice chunk that was thrown at her. She snapped her fingers and a small flame was created, she flicked the flame onto the ice block and it dissolved with a sizzle. Kristina too was a dragon-girl. She had red eyes that glowed when she got frustrated or mad about something or just plane annoyed. Her wings were read with black tips to them. Her tail was also red but it looked like the tip had been dipped in black paint. She was wearing a red short sleeved belly-shirt with a red metallic edge on the v-neck. She had on red paints that had black along the edges, and black skater shoes that had red stripes on them. Like grace she had gloves on, but hers were red with black claws. Her hair, which was blond was down and landed a little below the shoulders.

The cat boy lowered his arm. "Good kitty" Kristina smirked.

"You must be the warriors that took over after we left. I was wondering who would take it over" Grace looked the kids up and down. There was a cat-boy, a samurai, and a geisha warrior. "Let's see if there any good" Kristina spread her wings. "Stop being such a hot headed show off" Grace remarked coolly and shook her head. "Your element always did match your attitude a little too much." Kristina reluctantly folded her wings.

"So what are your names?" Grace asked. She was obviously the calmer of the two. "I'm Odd and this is Ulrich and Yumi..." Odd was cut off by Kristina. "Aelita's here" she stated as Aelita came around from the other side of a rock.

"Grace? Kristina?" Aelita stared wide eyed. "The one and only" Kristina took a dramatic bow. "I thought I'd never see you again" Aelita ran up to the girls. "We went to the U.S. but now were back, and I see you have some new warriors" Grace told her. "I still want to see if there any good." Kristina huffed crossing her arms on her chest. "I see you haven't changed much" Aelita said looking at Kristina. "But I'm sure Odd or Ulrich will take you on." Aelita said cheerfully.

"You know they haven't developed there element powers yet" Aelita added. "Fine, so I won't go full power on them. Who's first?" Kristina unfolded her wings.

"I'll go, but I want my overboard" Odd said taking a step forward. "Coming right up" a voice said. "Who's that?" Grace asked. "That was Jeremie he operates the supercomputer." Aelita informed him.

"You need someone to operate the computer while you're here?" Kristina asked. "Well yah" Yumi said speaking up for the first time. "No wonder you don't have your element power yet" Kristina mumbled to herself. "They just don't have the experience yet; need I remind you of your little mishap with a rochester? You were so scared that you had climbed a tree in the forest region." Grace pointed out. Kristina flicked a fire wisp at her, "shut up."

"If she can't handle a rochester I don't think she should be challenging us." Odd said. Kristina glared at him forming a big fireball in her hands. She started to bounce it up and down in her hands like she would a baseball. "Are you sure?" she asked her tail was slashing at the air.

Odd looked at the fireball nervously. "Umm maybe we should go back to earth first, and get to know each other a little better." Kristina absorbed the flame with a flick of her wrist. "Fine" she huffed.

Kristina and Grace folded there wings around there bodies and they devertualized. "Ok Jer our turn" Ulrich spoke. "Umm… Ulrich I didn't do that" Jeremie told them. "Then how did they do that?" Yumi asked. "I'm sure they will tell you when you get back home" Aelita said calmly. "Well still Jer can you get us out of here" Yumi asked. "Yah hold on," came the reply.

**What do you think? Let me know in the review I know you'll give me because… because… I told you so, yah that's it. and i know it's short but i felt it was a good place to cut it of because the next couple of pages don't really fit in here, almost forgot Grace gets some credit for checking over the story and helping me out with her charicter, so in a way she's kinda helping me write it**

**kpk**


	2. The Virus

**Ok here's the next chapter in this story. I'm just going to spare you of having to listen to my pointless blabbering and let you read the story. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko but I do own Grace and Kristina as well as my story**

The next thing the four of them knew they were stepping out the scanners. Two girls were standing against the wall. "Ok now which one is which?" Odd asked. One girl snapped her fingers and a small flame appeared. "Does that answer your question Odd?" She asked. "Yep that'll work… wait how did you do that?" "It comes with learning your element power. I'll work on it with you if you want?" Kristina offered "yah ok" he replied. "And once we figure out your element is we can figure out if you should train with me or Grace." Kristina explained.

Now that Odd was done talking to her he got a good look at her. Se was wearing a red t-shirt with a black silhouette of a dragon on the front. She was wearing regular jeans, nothing special there and white skater shoes with red stripes on them. Her hair wasn't any different than it was in Lyoko, but her eyes were blue now. Around her neck was a red beaded choker with a silver dragon pendant on it.

Grace on the other hand seemed to be wearing a lot of blue. Her shirt was a blue sleeveless shirt that has a silver outline of a wave on the front. She also wore jeans, except hers were flare jeans and they had a silver edge to the cuffs. Her hair was the same color as it was on Lyoko but now it was up in a high ponytail. Her eyes had also changed their color; they were now a bright hazel. The chocker that was around her neck was made of a silver ribbon and it had a blue stone that was cut into the shape of a dragon. On her feet she was wearing thick healed blue swayed boots.

They took the elevator to the super computer room. "So you're Jeremie" Kristina observed. "Shorter than I expected, but I bet you have he brains to make up for it, am I right?" Kristina asked. "Sure does, the only one that can match him is Aelita" Odd said.

"What's with the dragon chokers? You both have one." asked Yumi. "In order to use our powers out of Lyoko we have to have something charged with our Lyoko energy…" Grace was interrupted by Kristina. "So we decided to make our charms into necklaces so we could always have them with us." "Right, and if we aren't wearing our chokers then we can't use our element powers." Grace explained.

"Odd try and remove my necklace" Kristina instructed. Grace looked surprised at the question, and Odd looked hesitant. "Don't worry it wont kill you." Kristina promised. Odd touched her necklace but recoiled. "Ouch, hey that burns!" Odd shook his hand in attempt to cool it off. Kristina chuckled "as long as the owner is alive the charm can't be taken from them, and it didn't kill you so I wasn't lying" She explained. "And every time you go up a level your charm changes depending on what you did to deserve the level up." Kristina told them.

"How can you go up a level?" asked Jeremie very interested. "Normally you level up by gaining experience, but it's been said that certain experiences or a dire need or more power can also causes you to level up as well" Grace told them. "Why don't we have charms?" asked Yumi. "Because you haven't reached the level where they are necessary, your powers aren't strong enough yet to need something to hold them" Aelita answered. "You knew about this?" Jeremie asked. Aelita shrugged "well yah, it just never came up."

"Can you tell what levels were at?" Ulrich asked. "Kristina can" Aelita said. "Not only that but I can sense your emotions while I'm connected with you, and allow you to touch my necklace with out getting hurt." Kristina stood up. "Ok, form a line in front of me" the three warriors formed a line. Odd was first "ok, place your hands on mine" she instructed Odd. Odd did as he was told. Kristina closed her eyes and a red glow covered the both of them.

Kristina opened her eyes and the red glow died down. She gave him a knowing look, he blushed. "Ok so your only level 9, at level 10 you get your charm and your element power. Not only that but your very close to leveling up, if I'm not mistaken if you had taken me on you might have gotten it." "Ok, next."

Ulrich stepped up. "Ok same as Odd, put your hands on mine" Ulrich did as instructed. The red glow appeared once more but died down pretty quickly. "Yumi huh?" Kristina asked. Ulrich blushed, "any whey you are a level 9 as well, though you just leveled up so you aren't going to be leveling up again anytime soon." Kristina informed him.

"Yumi's the only one left" Kristina said. Yumi approached her, "same routine put your hands on mine." Yumi did as she was told. The red glow came back for a third time and died down soon afterwards. "Same spot as Ulrich actually, a little past level 9" Kristina informed Yumi. "That's all you can sense?" Yumi asked slightly surprised. "No" Kristina replied "but I'm not going to embarrass the two of you by saying it out loud." She added.

"So what level are you guys?" Odd asked. "19" Kristina said proudly "18" said Grace rather glumly. "She's just mad because I'm one level up from her" Kristina explained her hands on her hips "and I almost always have been" she added.

"Well, it's been nice meeting you but we need to unpack our stuff in our dorms now" Grace said getting up from the floor where she had been sitting. "Where are you guys going to school?" Yumi asked. "Some place called Kadic" Kristina said. "Really that's where we go!" Aelita said excitedly. "Well we still need to get back" Grace said dully.

"Are you guys going to stay here?" Kristina asked everyone else. "Yah we only came here because Aelita sensed something was on Lyoko, it must have been you guys." Jeremie said.

"Xana will start to up the level of his attacks now that he knows were here" Kristina stated pressing the button for the elevator. "Yah he'll want to test your current level before he tries anything on you" Grace said stepping into the elevator with the others.

Kristina looked surprised at what she said, "you normally don't mention that." "Don't mention what?" Ulrich asked as the elevator door closed. Aelita gave Kristina a sympathetic look; apparently she also knew what they were talking about. "I'd rather not talk about it right now, maybe when the time comes." Kristina said calmly. To Kristina's relief nobody seemed to question her though she knew they were dying to know.

The walk back to the school was eerily quite, not even Odd was talking, finally Aelita spoke up "so why did you move?" "Our parents made us" Kristina answered, "It was kinda weird that we both moved at the same time, we even moved to the same place in the U.S." Grace added.

"I always said not even Xana could keep you two apart" Aelita said with a smile. "Nothing has been able to yet" Kristina kicked some leaves on the forest floor.

"I'll be needing to come to Lyoko tomorrow for some training anyone up to coming?" Kristina asked. "Why don't we all go tomorrow is Sunday we'll have some free time" Jeremie suggested, nobody rejected the idea.

The school was in sight now. "I'm hungry" Kristina took on a whiny voice. "Your always hungry" Grace commended. "What's wrong with that?" Odd asked. "Exact..." Kristina didn't finish what she was saying.

Kristina dropped to her knees holding her head "he's trying to get into my head already!" A panicked look crossed Graces face "not already! Aelita do you remember if you still have any of that stuff that we used to use left?" "I think so, I'll be right back" Aelita ran off into the woods back toward the factory. "Odd, follow Aelita she may need your help" Grace instructed.

"You have to fight him Kristina, come on you have to" Grace was coaxing Kristina. "I'm not strong enough" Kristina answered shaking her head. "You're the strongest warrior we have of course you are strong enough" Grace was kneeling in the dirt beside Kristina a comforting hand on her shoulder. Everyone else just looked confused, "may I ask what's going on?" Jeremie asked.

"Now's not the time we have to get her the injection before he takes control" Grace answered, "he who?" Asked Yumi, "Xana" Grace breathed.

Aelita came running back with a syringe in her hand "it's the last one" she managed to say between breaths. "Were going to need more then, here give it to me and someone help me hold her still" Grace instructed. Odd held Kristina's shaking body still as Grace injected the blue liquid into her left arm. Kristina stopped shaking and she opened her eyes.

"What would I do without you guys?" Kristina said softly, a slight smile played on her lips. "No idea" Grace joked. "Aelita can you make more of that stuff soon?" Kristina asked. Aelita nodded her head "sure, looks like we'll need it."

Kristina looked at the others, "I'll tell you in my room come on" Kristina lead the way back to her and Grace's room.

Grace unlocked the door to her and Kristina's dorm. "Careful don't let Tiggy get out" Kristina warned. "She's probably sleeping on your bed so don't worry" Grace responded. "Tiggy?" Odd asked interested. "She's my cat, I know I'm not supposed to have her but I couldn't leaver at home" Kristina explained "please don't tell" she begged Odd. "I won't tell" he promised. Everybody walked into the dorm and closed the door.

It wasn't hard to tell which side of the room was who's even if they were only halfway unpacked. Kristina's side of the room had a red bed spread with a large white tiger sitting at the base of the bed. Above her headboard was a poster of a white tiger looking at the moon, her walls had there fair share of dragon posters and sketches of her Lyoko form as well. At the foot of her bed she had a book case that had both Warriors series, Eragon and Eldest, and the Harry Potter series along with other miscellaneous books most of them being about dragons. She had a desk with a computer monitor on it, the other parts yet to be unpacked. A dresser with a red suitcase at its base stood near the door.

Grace's bedspread was blue with a silver lining on the edges. She had a Dell laptop on her bed that had a blue dragon sticker on the top of it. A poster of a rearing horse was above her headboard other horse posters were scattered across her share of the walls as well. A couple of horse plushies sat around her pillow. The desk at the foot of her bed had ample drawing supplies stacked on it along with a couple of sketches, most of them dragons. Her dresser was sitting at her bedside and on top of it were several dragon figures most of them made of silver.

"This is our room" Grace announced. Kristina flopped on her bed Aelita sat next to her, everyone else made themselves comfy either on the beds or on one of the girls rolling chars used for their desks.

"I can't believe he attacked you so soon" Grace shook her head. "I didn't think he would either" Kristina admitted. "I guess your wondering what just happened huh?" Kristina asked sheepishly. "Yah what was that?" Yumi asked.

"I better start from the beginning. Grace and I found Lyoko when we were 10." Kristina started. "That rochester accident happened when I first went to Lyoko and I was still a little freaked out about the idea, so I got scared and ran up the tree because I hadn't even figured out how to fly, but any way. I had always been the stronger of the two, so I leveled up quicker than Grace did; it's probably because of this that Xana developed this, liking for me. One time I had to go by myself because Grace was busy with the real world problem. A scyphozoa cornered me and I couldn't run away, but instead of taking something from me he gave me something, a virus of sorts. This isn't an ordinary virus; it's embedded into my very virtual DNA so I can't get rid of it. He uses this virus to take control of me; I can resist him but not enough to stop the attack… at least not yet. If he does take control of me he could use me to do things to you guys. I broke Graces arm in three places once when under his control, and another time I almost killed Aelita." Kristina stopped talking and nobody had much to say.

"But if I could train one of you, one of you that has an element closer to mine than Grace's than it wouldn't be such a problem, but you actually need to have your element power for this to work which none of you do." Kristina said her sprits lifting. "What good would that do?" Odd asked. "I can dissolve her ice to easily I need a more formable opponent." Kristina leaned against the wall.

"That's why I need you Odd, if I can train you up you might do" Kristina said looking hopeful, "your already the strongest out of your group, just a little training with me that would be all you need."

"What exactly would he need to do?" Jeremie asked. "When Xana controls me someone needs to devertualize me to make me go back to normal, all he has to do is be able to defeat me" Kristina answered simply. "Then why not Grace, she's stronger?" Ulrich asked. Kristina looked at him "didn't I already explain that, her normal attacks aren't strong enough and I can melt her ice too easily."

A white cat with black stripes, much like that of a tigers came out from under Kristina's bed dragging a red laptop case. "Hey Tiggy" Kristin picked up the cat and placed her in her lap. "What did you drag out my laptop out for?" she asked the kitten affectionately, the cat just looked up at her with blue eyes and blinked. Kristina shook her head and picked up the laptop case.

Kristina unzipped it and lifted out the ruby red laptop. "Scanning Lyoko?" Grace asked "yep" was Kristina's reply. "Why? Nothing's happened" Jeremie told them. "Just because nothings happened doesn't mean nothing will happen" Kristina replied simply.

Kristina typed for a few seconds then smiled triumphantly as she showed everybody the laptop screen. Jeremie stared in awe; there in text was Xana's next plan. "What… but… how… that's imposable!" Jeremie took Kristina's laptop from her and looked over the file more closely. Everybody was too shocked to speak and just crowded around Kristina's bed to get a closer look. "I didn't know you fixed the bugs in this program" Aelita was scanning the information displayed on the screen. Kristina shrugged "I'm good with computers."

"Well spit it out what's the new attack?" Grace said. Just then the file disappeared and a message replaced it. "You will be mine, and you can't do anything about it. You know you can't resist your bloodline; my virus will only make it harder to resist. The dark flame will return" Kristina stared at the message "we must go to Lyoko this can't wait" she turned off the laptop and put it back in the case.

**Who is this Dark flame Xana is talking about? Why does Kristina seem to have more abilities than Grace? Will Xana succeed in brining Kristina under his control? What lies back in Kristina's bloodline? Why am I asking so many questions if I already know the answers? Ok enough questions, Read and Review or Kristina might have to take some time off for some target practice.**

**kpk**

6


	3. My Little Black Flame

**This is a very important chapter so I'm just going to get right to it. That and I don't have much to say right now. Wait I remembered Grace (the real one) just put up her first story and though she "forgot" to wait till I'm done editing it it's a really good story, her pen name is black dragons girl and the story is Seven Dragons you can find it on my favs.**

**Disclaimer: ok, now I don't own Code Lyoko just my story and my characters **

At the factory everyone was virtualized. They were in the desert region. Kristina stepped forward everyone started to follow not knowing why she had ordered they come here.

"I know you're here Xana, you can feel my presence and I can feel yours so come out" Kristina yelled. Everyone just stayed quiet to confused to talk.

"So you found your way back did you, and you've become stronger, you always were the stronger of the two of you. I have to say I'm proud to call you my daughter." All eyes fell on Kristina. "You're his daughter?" Yumi asked shocked. Kristina turned to face them, "can't say I'm proud if it." "Yah I know it's hard to image but she's not evil I promise" Grace's voice was firm and believable. "It's true I was there when they first promised to take down Kristina's father." Aelita said remembering.

Flashback

_Two young dragon-girls were sitting on a desert rock, one red the other blue. A young elf-girl sat before them. The red one stood up she appeared to be about 10 years of age, "I'm sick of him, I men look what he's done to me." The girl's right hand flashed black. "He's our father what can we do?" The blue one sighed, still slightly shook up about the recent scyphozoa attack, worried that she might be next. _

"_I think we should fight back" the blue one proposed, "I think Grace is right we need to do something we can't sit here and do nothing, look what he did to Kristina." The elf-girl said. "Yah, your right Aelita we can't just sit here, we have to fight back" Kristina agreed, "you hear that dad, I won't be your little dark flame anymore, I'm fighting back!"_

End Flashback

Kristina's hand started to flash black Aelita and Grace knew what was coming. A black flame started to engulf Kristina "NO!" Kristina collapsed onto her knees. The flame engulfed her entirely, and then slowly started to disappear.

Before the gang stood Kristina, but she didn't look like she normally did. Everywhere she had once worn red was now black, and every where the once was black there was now a dark purple. Her fangs that used to be a pearly white were now a glistening black. Her eyes were now a dark purple, and around her neck was a black choker with a silver pendent of Xana's eye hanging off it. Her tail that was normally smooth now had black spikes running down it. Kristina looked up at them with an evil glint in her eye. Xana spoke, "ah my little dark flame you have returned to me, now give your new friends a Xana induced welcome."

"Kristina you don't want to do this" Odd warned. Kristina turned in his direction forming a black fireball in her hand, "oh, but I do." Stretching her wings Kristina jumped into the air. "Come on anybody want to even attempt to take me on?" Kristina challenged. "Uhh Jer got any tips of fighting a Xana induced dragon-girl?" Ulrich asked. "Uhh nope" Jeremie confessed. "Gee, thanks" Odd rolled his eyes.

"Any advice?" Yumi asked Grace and Aelita. "Avoid her flames" Grace instructed forming an ice chunk in her hand. "Is there anything other than materialization that will snap her out of Xana's control?" Ulrich asked hopefully. "Actually yes, but your not going to like it" Grace dodged a black fireball that was thrown at her. "What is it?" Odd asked turning sharply on his overboard so he wouldn't run into a rock. "A kiss" Grace replied, "a what!" Odd turned to look at her in surprise. "Told you, you wouldn't like it" Grace pointed out.

Forming a bow and arrow with ice Grace took aim at Kristina "artic arrow!" Grace realized her arrow; it hit Kristina's left wing. Kristina fell to the ground a cloud of dust accumulating around her. A pair of Glowing dark purple eyes could bee seen coming through the dust. "Say bye, bye Gracie" Kristina started to form a huge circle of dark flame in her hands. "Oh no you don't, laser arrow" Kristina felt a dull pain in her left arm and turned to Odd. "Is that all you got?" Kristina questioned her hands placed on her hips. "Just keep chipping away at her she's only got 85 life points left" Jeremie instructed. "Ok then… super sprint" Ulrich ran full speed at Kristina. "Fire wall" Kristina effortlessly formed a wall of black flames to block Ulrich's attack. "Wow that firewall took 50 life points from Ulrich I'd watch out if I were you" Jeremie was amazed at Kristina's power.

"Yumi don't even think about it" Kristina smirked as she turned her head to see Yumi opening her fans for time first time in the battle. "Fire arrow" Kristina shot three flaming arrows out of her wrist. One destroyed one of Yumi's fans and the other two hit Yumi who wasn't suspecting the attack devitalizing her. "Now that was too easy" Kristina shook her head.

"Whoa" Kristina jumped back just in time to avoid a couple of Odd's arrows. Ulrich took this time to jam his sword into Kristina's shoulder, and Kristina' didn't take it well. Grabbing one end of his katana she flung him over her shoulder so he landed on his back. Putting one foot on his chest she shot a couple of fire arrows at him, this of course devertualized him.

"65 life points" Jeremie updated Odd and Grace, "lets chop it down a notch" Grace jumped into the air and hovered above Kristina. Grace formed another arrow and set it into her bow. Kristina sensed it coming and jumped out of the way. "Grace you had better aim…" Kristina was knocked to the ground by one of Odd's arrows. "Two against one isn't fair" Kristina wined as she got up clutching her leg which had taken a nasty hit. Grace took this time to hit her with three, yes three arrows.

"25" Jeremie updated. "We almost got her" Odd sounded a bit perkier. "Don't count…" Grace was shot out of the air and devertualized by a flaming arrow. "She was getting annoying" Kristina huffed as she put her flaming bow away then turned to Odd. "It's just me and you" she said smiling.

Odd placed his had on his wrist "and soon it'll be just you." "You're very sure of yourself aren't you, I like that" Kristina made her flaming bow again and strung it. Odd and Kristina let there arrows go at the same time. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as the arrows collided in the air and exploded into on contact. The explosion trust both warriors back devertualising them both.

Odd dropped out of the scanner and hit the floor rather hard. As he stood up he noticed something, his body was coursing with electricity. Then he noticed something else, a lightning bolt pendant hanging from a string around his neck. Not thinking much of it he looked to see if Kristina had been devertualized.

Yep, there she was and apparently she too had fallen out of the scanner because she was laying on her side. Dark energy was flashing around her as if Xana was trying to gain control again.

Odd stood up rather shakily "wow that was worse than being devertualized in sector 5." Then the doors to the elevator opened. "Kristina!" Grace ran over to her and propped her up, placed her hands on Kristina's chest and muttered a few words under her breath. Kristina opened her eyes "almost forgot how horrible that feels."

"That explosion was huge!" Ulrich blurted out, "is that why I fell like I was run over by a bulldozer then thrown off a 10 story bulding?" Odd asked.

"You got your charm Odd" Kristina said sleepily then fell asleep leaning against the scanner. "Kristina's right, see" Jeremie pointed to the pendant Odd noticed earlier. "Well let's get some rest then we can talk about it once Kristina wakes up again, you can't imagine how much energy these attacks take out of her."

**I thought it came out pretty well but you're the real judge so press the button and review… what are you doing still reading this I said review… and yet you're still reading why is that? I guess I'll just have to stop typing so you have to stop reading.**

…………** I SAID REVIEW!**

**purplekit**


	4. A Hidden Heartache

**Sorry for the long wait but I think it was worth it (I was going to update yesterday but it wouldn't let me upload the document). Many secrets are about to revealed and things are going to get interesting. I think Grace will be very interested in the ending. Just if you know what's coming Grace please don't blurt it out in a review that would ruin it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko… I wish I did though**

Kristina cracked her eyes open "oh, god my head, Grace a little assistance." Grace sighed and placed her hands on Kristina's chest muttering a few words under her breath. When she was done Kristina seemed a little perkier "thanks."

"May, I ask what the point of dragging us to Lyoko was?" Grace asked. "One, you know it helps my resistance, and two I wasn't going to hide from Xana forever. Odd even got his charm out of it." Kristina smiled triumphantly.

Odd took the charm out of his pocket. "Electricity, a suitable element that's for sure" Ulrich said leaning back in his chair. "Toss it here" Kristina asked. "Won't it spark you?" Odd asked.

Kristina sighed "who am I connected to?" She asked. "Xana" Odd responded wondering where she was going. "Do you have any idea where the powers for those charms come from?" Kristina asked. "Uhh… nope" Odd replied cheerfully.

"Someone please tell me they have some idea, I can't believe you can't figure this out" Kristina said in an exasperated tone. "Do I count?" Grace asked hopefully. "No, I know you know where the power comes from." Kristina said glancing across the room to Grace.

"So other than Grace does anyone have the slightest idea where the powers come from?" Kristina asked yet again. "Xana would be the only logical source" Jeremie concluded breaking the silence. "Thank you someone had the brains to figure it out" Kristina leaned against the wall.

"Can anyone in this room put two and two together?" Grace asked before Kristina could. "Because of my connection to Xana I'm not affected by the shock" Kristina didn't wait for anyone else to answer, "so toss it hear." Kristina motioned for Odd toss her his charm.

Odd tossed it to Kristina who caught it. "Nice, Xana must have been waiting to make this one for a while, it's really well done." Kristina tossed it back to its respectful owner. "Why would Xana give us anything good?" Yumi asked. "It's not like he had a choice, it's in his programming" Grace explained.

"So he has to give us one of these when we reach level 10?" Odd asked. "That's what I just said" Grace remarked.

"Who will I be training with?" Odd asked sticking his charm in his pocket. "Kristina" Grace answered.

"Why her" asked Ulrich. "There are two types of element categories, power and healing. Each element falls into one of the categories." Aelita told them. "Grace and Kristina are perfect examples of each, guess which one is which" she added.

"Let me guess Kristina is power and Grace is healing" Yumi guessed correctly. "Yep" Kristina replied nodding her head.

"The seven elements are broken up into the two categories. Water or ice, light, and air are healing, and earth, fire, darkness, and electricity are power elements." Grace explained.

"You forgot one" Kristina told her as she stroked Tiggy who had jumped up on to the bed… "No I didn't" Grace looked at Kristina confused. "Yes you did, what about that one that's like a legend or something?" Kristina asked her. "Exactly we don't know if it's a real element or not" Grace pointed out. "Well we still can't exclude it now can we?" Kristina asked.

Just then a knock was heard at the door, or rather a loud banging noise. "Open this up right now I have something to say to you Kristina!" Whoever it was sounded ticked off. "Ok Tiggy hide" Kristina put the kitten on the ground. The kitten obeyed and ran under the bed.

"Don't tell me you already had a run in with Sissy" Ulrich said looking at Kristina. "Fine then I won't tell you" Kristina got up and opened the door.

She was greeted with a cup of water being dumped on her head. Kristina blinked a couple of times "nice to see you too."

"Don't give me that, I know you were the one who set my new dress on fire" Sissy was mad. "Do you have any proof?" Kristina asked leaning against the door frame. "I saw you do it" Sissy shouted back. "Really? What time was it?" Kristina asked… "6:30 this morning" Sissy replied.

Then a burst of laughter escaped Grace. "Kristina never gets up by 6:30, she's lucky to make it to school on time." "See I couldn't have done it, now I must get back to doing what I was doing before you interrupted me, goodbye." And with that Kristina closed the door in Sissy's face.

"Did you really set her dress on fire?" Grace asked calmly. Kristina smiled, "Yah, but only because she slapped me on our first encounter."

"Aren't you going to dry yourself off?" Grace asked her. "Yah, give me a minute." Kristina closed her eyes and she started to glow red. When the red died down she was completely dry.

"Sissy won't let you get away with that you know" Odd told her. "Yah I planned on that, but I can take her" Kristina resumed her spot on her bed.

"I know this is totally off topic but how do you stay cool in the summer?" Jeremie asked. "I can repel heat as easy as I can draw it to myself" Kristina answered simply.

"Do you do the same thing in the winter?" Ulrich asked Grace. Grace nodded her head "my element keeps me cool in the summer and is a great insulator in the winter."

"Unfortunately Odd has one of the few elements that can't do that" Kristina said as she picked Tiggy off the ground. "That's no fair" Odd complained. "But you don't need batteries or outlets to power electrical objects" Aelita pointed out. "Think of how much you'll save on electrical bills" Jeremie said. "True" Odd said trying to coax Tiggy to coming over to him.

Tiggy ran and hid behind Kristina. Kristina stifled a chuckle "she's scared of your hair." Odd patted his hair "it isn't that scary." "But the stuff you put in it is" Ulrich said a smirk on his face. Odd pouted

"Besides she only really likes Kristina" Grace said picking up the frightened kitten. "She looks like she likes you" Aelita said. "She'll settle for me but she likes Kristina better" grace said as she tickled the kitten under the chin. Tiggy purred.

"What time is it?" Kristina asked laying her head on her large stuffed tiger. "6:31" Odd answered as he looked at the clock.

"Ugh another hour till dinner and I'm starved" Kristina rolled onto her stomach. "Oh great don't tell me she has an appetite as big as Odd's" Ulrich exasperated. "Well she eat practically anything in sight if that's what you mean, and to this day I'm not sure how she stays so skinny." Grace said. "It's a gift" Kristina said smugly.

Grace chucked a pillow at her. The pillow hit Kristina square in the face. Kristina calmly picked up the pillow and fluffed it. She sat up smiled at Grace innocently and slammed the pillow in her face.

Practically everyone fell to the floor laughing with the exception of Jeremie who just fell over on his side.

Grace saw the mischievous look in Kristina's eyes and nodded. Both girls picked up a pillow. Everybody stopped laughing and gave them that 'don't you dare' look. Kristina and Grace slammed pillows in Aelita and Odd's faces. Grace and Kristina rolled with laughter at their faces.

The laughter abruptly stopped when everybody had pillows in their hand and was standing in front of the two. "Oh come on, can't you take a joke?" Kristina asked meekly.

The only response she got was a pillow in her face. Grace started to laugh but was abruptly stopped when a pillow hit her into the face. "Alright this means war" Grace stood up and smacked Kristina upside the head with a pillow. The pillow that Kristina was holding flew out of her hands and hit Jeremie in the head. Soon the whole room was a flurry of pillows and feathers.

Kristina was dominating the room. That is until grace knocked her onto of a stack of pillows. "Not cool" Kristina huffed as she rolled onto her back and grabbed a pillow.

"Watch out!" Ulrich called to Kristina. Kristina soon found out why because Odd had been knocked over, and coincidentally had landed on top of her. His hands were pinning her arms to her sides. His knees were on either side of her legs making it incredibly hard for her to move them. Odd was blushing furiously but Kristina acted like it was normal for things to end up like this.

"Are you going to get up?" Kristina asked her cheeks now starting to turn a light shade of pink. Odd just nodded and stood up. Ulrich glanced at his friend and gave him a 'we'll talk later look.'

Jeremie had ended up lying on Graces bed with his head hanging off the side. "Its 7: 27 we should head down to the cafeteria now" Jeremie announced seeing the clock in front of him.

"You guys go I'll be there in a minute" Kristina said as she picked up a hair brush to fix her hair that had gotten extremely messed up. Grace gave Kristina a quizzical look "I'll wait here with Kristina we'll be down in a minute." alright see you in a bit" Ulrich opened the door and stepped out the others I n tow.

When the door closed and everyone had left Grace turned to Kristina. "What's up?" "What makes you think something's up?" Kristina asked as she handed the hair brush to Grace who needed it more than she did. "You're late for Lunch, you're never late for lunch" Grace answered simply.

"You're scared it will happen again aren't you" Grace asked quietly. Kristina didn't respond, instead she pulled open a drawer in her desk.

After searching for a moment she pulled out a necklace it held exactly 8 charms on it. "Your old Lyoko charms" Grace recognized the various charms that hung from silver chain.

The 5th charm was different than the rest, it held no connection to her element or dragons. The charm was a silver heart with a crack that ran almost all the way down it. If you were to touch all of her charms in turn you would find that they all felt warm from the lingering effect of her fire. All except this one, this one was ice cold.

Grace sighed "dwelling on the past wont help." Kristina didn't pay attention to her friends comment. Removing the charm from the chain she ran her fingers along the crack. A single tear ran down her cheek and landed on the broken heart.

Taking the chain from the desk and the charm from her friend Grace put the charm back on the silver chain. "I'll bring these to lunch I bet the others would like to look at them. Come on I bet you are getting hungry, in fact knowing you I bet you've been hungry for the past three hours."

Kristina smiled at her friends meek attempt at making her feel better. "Yah I have been" Kristina realized exactly how right her friend was. "See, now come on let's go down to lunch" Grace opened the door.

At lunch Kristina didn't talk a lot only to explain each of her charms. "What about that one what dose that one stand for?" Odd asked pointing to the broken heart charm. Kristina didn't answer the question, to many painful memories. "Best we skip that one" Grace said. Then glancing to the next one she picked it up.

"The crossed dragon claws, this one had an interesting story" Grace handed the charm to Kristina. Kristina smiled "that was the time I had to fight off this new creature Xana made up and I ended up hitting Grace by mistake and breaking her arm."

"Which creature?" Jeremie asked. "We always called them cannons but you might call them by a different name" Kristina said stuffing a chicken nugget into her mouth.

"She means the tarantulas" Aelita told the others. "They don't look anything like tarantulas" Grace retorted. "Odd named them" Ulrich informed her. "Figures" Kristina mumbled still munching on her chicken nugget.

Just then the cafeteria doors opened revealing the principal and two boys. The boys and the principal were headed for the gangs table.

Kristina who hadn't really given it much attention was forced to when Grace jerked her head in there direction. "Do you recognize them?" Yumi asked. "No" came Ulrich's, Odd's, Jeremie's and Aelita's reply. "Yes" came Grace's and Kristina's reply.

**Silver and Black dragons are about to enter this story. I can picture Grace's face now and it's really funny, she probably looks somewhat like a gaping fish. Anyway I know all my marvelous readers will review for me because you know you want to and I would be really happy if you did. Till next time**

**purplepaw**


	5. There Was Once Four

**Sorry for the wait but I couldn't upload my chapter which annoyed me to no end but other than that I'll just let you get to the good stuffs my story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko if I did things would be a little different**

"We see them, we don't need you to take us any further" a boy with messy blond hair told Mr. Delmas. "Alright I check in with you later and see how things are going" Mr. Delmas waved to the two boys and walked out of the cafeteria.

The blond one was wearing a blue sweatshirt over a white t-shirt that probably had some graphic on the front but at the moment you couldn't see it. His regular jeans weren't anything out of the ordinary. Black and white skater shoes were on his feet. His eyes were blue, only slightly darker than Kristina's. Today they had a mischievous sparkle in them.

The other boy had shortish black hair, with dark brown eyes. He wore long black pants with two white stripes on either leg, and a long white shirt with a huge grey hooded sweatshirt over it. On his feet were black and white skater shoes the stile varying from the blonde one.

"Is this good or bad?" Grace asked Kristina. "Haven't decided yet" Kristina answered calmly. "Well, we're about to find out" Grace mumbled as the two boys approached.

"Kristina, Grace long time no see" the black haired boy said with a smile. "Not long enough" Kristina mumbled. Grace elbowed her in the ribs "be nice you know what they can do" she whispered into her ear.

The blond boy came up to Kristina. "New charm, what level are you now?" he ran his finger over the dragon hanging from Kristina's neck. Everyone looked on in amazement as none of the charms heat inflicted pain. "19" Kristina said averting his gaze.

"They know?" Yumi asked surprised. "They should, they're the other two dragons of Lyoko. Both of them are more powerful than I am, or at least they were" Kristina said coolly.

"What levels are you?" Ulrich asked. "18" the black haired on said. "20" said the blond one. "20!" Kristina shot up from her seat. "Max how did your level get so high?" "What's the matter still upset that someone can out do you?" The darker haired boy asked with a smirk. "Stay out of this Dan" Grace advised calmly.

Kristina opened her mouth as if to say something to Max but decided it wasn't a good idea and closed it. Instead she stood up "come on Odd we should get some training in you won't be able to control your powers until you do."

"Got yourself an apprentice do you?" Max asked raising an eyebrow. "An apprentice goes to the most powerful person with the same element type that doesn't already have one and right now that's me. There has only ever been one exception, and that was my apprenticeship, you of all people should know that having been my mentor." Kristina said to him. "Come on Kristina let's go" Odd grabbed her arm and lead her out of the cafeteria.

"Why don't we come, we could use the warm up" Max offered. Kristina sighed "why not" then swiftly walked out of the door.

"Does anybody but me feel like they missed something?" Ulrich asked. "Me" Yumi answered. Jeremie just nodded.

"Do you think we should tell them?" Grace asked Aelita. "I suppose the next few days would be confusing if we didn't" Aelita replied. "I'll tell it" Grace offered.

"You see there were four of us in the beginning. All of us were good friends. Our four elements even went together, fire, ice, light and darkness. We all looked out for one another and helped each other out. Max was even Kristina's mentor but only because he was the only one who could control his element power. As we got older me and Dan started to notice something between Max and Kristina.

"They had always been close friends and always were training buddies, but we knew there was something more between them. Something more than friends, and we were right. When all of us just turned 13 Max and Kristina got together. Happy as could be the two of them, nobody saw the danger that lay ahead.

"A couple of months later he broke up with her, for another. She was crushed. It so happens that, that was when she got her next charm. Her broken heart charm, ice cold to the touch and a holder of painful memories for Kristina.

"That's why she wouldn't talk about it" Jeremie interrupted Grace. "It was also why she was late to lunch" Grace added, "But that isn't even the worst part.

"When we were having a particularly hard battle with a bunch of cannons or rather tarantulas Kristina was taking the greatest amount of damage. She was hit from behind and thrown forwards.

"I heard her shouting so I turned around to see Max going to help her back onto the ledge for she had fallen over the edge and was hanging by her finger tips. As I turned back around thinking she was in safe hands I heard her scream again and I turned in time to see Max step on her fingers. Before I could do anything she was falling toward the digital sea, but she managed to devertualize herself before her data was lost forever. I couldn't believe it; he had tried to kill her.

"After that we never talked to him again, and since Dan was his best friend well we just had to stop talking to him too... even though he was one of my best friends." As Grace finished everyone looked at each other then back at her "um... well... then why did you let her go to Lyoko with them...almost all alone?" she asked quietly "well... because... oh shit!" She said then ran out of the room.

Grace virtualized herself. She recognized Kristina and Odd talking in the center of the clearing. Over to the side sitting on a large rock were two half-dragons. One was silver the other black.

The silver one had large silver wings, it wasn't the overly shiny kind of silver but it did have some shine to it. His long silver tail had gray spikes running all the way down. His arms weren't human they were covered in silver dragon scales that ended not far below his shoulder. The tips of his fingers had pure white claws coming from them. he wore no shoes for almost the same reason his feet were dragon feet. Each toe ended with a long white claw not counting the 4 inch claw coming out from his heel. His eyes were blue with silver specks in them. He still had his characteristic messy blond hair. Like all the other half dragons he had fangs, his being white. They were about the same length as Grace's and obviously longer than Kristina's.

The half dragons' pants were the same silver color as his wings. His shirt was a simple white t-shirt though the ends of the sleeves were ragged as if they had ben rubbing against his dragon scales to long. From a silver band around his waist a golden sheath hung. Inside the sheath was a silver blade, the handle was imbedded with sapphires.

The other had jet black wings and a spiny tail to match. His eyes were a dark brown almost black with gold flecks in them. Around his eyes were black scales and instead of eyelashes he had spines. His hair was the same no difference there. His arms from the elbow gown were dragons each finger ending in a black claw. The black dragons' pants were baggy and, yep you guessed it black. I can't describe his shirt for the simple reason that he wasn't wearing one. He too had dragons' feet with jet black claws. His four inch fangs were the longest out of the group beating Grace's and Max's by a mere 1/4 of an inch.

In Lyoko Kristina and Odd were practicing releasing there energy in controlled bursts. "Good now that gotten in some practice you won't accidentally shock someone; now let's work on some fighting moves." Kristina shouted to Odd while Dan and Max watched.

"She's gotten good" Max muttered to himself. "You wishing you never let her go?" Dan asked. "No!" Max said a little too quickly. Dan smiled one of those 'uh huh, right...' smiles and returned his attention back to Kristina in time to see Grace virtualized next to her.

"Did they try anything yet?" Grace asked Kristina as she ran up. "No... what do you mean?" Kristina asked.

"I was just telling the others the whole story and they suggested they might try to kill you again." Grace gasped in exasperation "oh, well they haven't tried anything... yet." Kristina added the last part wearily. "Ok, well I'll go and watch" Grace said heading over to Max and Dan.

"Hey..." she said sitting down on a rock next to them. Neither of them responded. "Jerks" she muttered to herself.

Suddenly she felt a presence enter her head _"I heard that"_ she realized someone was mind speaking to her. _"Who are you?" _she asked. The presence of the persons mind seemed somewhat familiar.

"_Guess" _the voice said laughing. _"I know I've talked to you before"_ Grace said confused. _"Duh... you just said hi to me two minutes ago... moron" _the voice said smugly. Something in her mind clicked_ "Oh...hey Dan, why did you ignore me, I thought you were my friend" _Grace asked looking over at him and smiling. His eyes turned in her direction and locked with hers.

As he smiled another voice entered her mind and said quite loudly _"you have no business talking with Dan." _

At this point Grace had stopped paying attention to Kristina. "You can't tell me who I can and can't talk to" she looked at Max ready to attempt to take him on if necessary.

The moment was broken when Kristina was thrown into the rock face beside them. "Was that good?" Odd called from the center of the clearing. "Perfect" Kristina mumbled. She hadn't even attempted to stand up again.

Max snickered, "I thought you were a level 19?" "The same thing happened to you when you were training me remember? If you aren't fully trained your power level may jump, and his just skyrocketed" Kristina defended herself.

"Are you sure or was that just a cover up story?" Dan asked. Kristina's eyes started to glow. "Oh, you got her mad" Odd approached the group.

"Are you saying I couldn't handle a level 10?" Kristina asked coolly though she was obviously trying not to snap at him. "Maybe" Dan's eyes shone with mischief.

"Well I'm not sure how to prove you wrong" she paused and placed her hand on her wrist. "Except… for this, fire arrow!" Kristina shot Dan square in the chest. He was thrown back hitting the ground with a thud.

"Or this" Kristina formed a large fireball. Right when she was about to throw it, it was shot out of her hand. "We can't have you devertualising him now can we?" Max's voice was cool and sent chill down her spine.

"These two on the other hand" Max gestured toward Grace and Odd. "We can do with out them."

Kristina knew what was coming. She also knew that she was powerless to stop it. Max pulled his sword out of its sheath. "Light wave" flicking his sword across the air he sent a wave of pure white light energy at Grace and Odd devertualising them both on contact.

"One weakened by mind speaking the other you weakened yourself" Max turned to Kristina.

The warmth in his eyes Kristina had once been so accustomed to was gone. He raised his sword to strike her across the chest. She didn't move and surprisingly neither did he.

Max looked at her curiously "you've changed." "It's only been a couple of months" she said truthfully. Max withdrew his sword and put it in its sheath. He looked at her, his eyes softening a bit "a lot can happen in a couple of months."

He took a step toward her. She took a step back shaking her head. He looked at her as if to say what's wrong.

She looked at the desert ground and a single tear slid down her cheek. "I don't think I've ever seen you cry" his voice was sympathetic. She brought her gaze up to meet his. Max was confused by it, he expected a sad look in her eyes but instead they held a mixture of pain and fright.

Obviously not wanting to say there any longer she closed her wings around herself and devertualized.

"I think she's still mad at you" Dan said from his perch atop a rather high rock. "Really, didn't notice" Max said sarcastically as he looked up to his friend.

"If you want her back you're going to have to do something about that" Dan said casually. "For the last time I don't want her" Max was tired with his friend's antics, though sometimes he wondered if Dan was right. Shaking his head he tried to get rid of the thought, him and her together again imposable.

**Unlike the top note I have stuff to put here. If you like grace's character don't worry I have stuff planed for her just not at this moment. And something that popped into my head was that you might have some questions I'll put some questions that popped into my head while I was reading this chapter after this note. So review because the more reviews I get the faster I update.**

**purplepaw**

How old are Kristina, Grace, Dan, and Max? 

I realized that I forgot to put in their ages so here they are… right now they are all 15 Kristina is the oldest she'll be 16 in about three months Max is 17 days younger than her Dan is only a month younger than Max and Grace is the youngest being exactly two months younger than Kristina

How did Max's level higher than Kristina's?

You don't have to go to Lyoko to train once you have your element you can just train by practicing with it. So when Max was in the U.S. (he did live in the U.S with Grace and Kristina along with Dan) he trained with Dan outside of Lyoko when Kristina wasn't

Why do Dan and Max have dragon feet and arms and the Girls don't?

All four of the Dragons of Lyoko started out with the glove like things that morph there arms into dragons while there feet remain normal. Now since boy dragons mature physically faster than Girl ones do they get their arms and feet earlier at level 18 while the girls get theirs at level 20 hence why Dan has his and the girls don't

_If you have anymore questions that I didn't put up here tall me in the review I know you'll give me_


	6. Two of Us?

**I really should be updating my other story because I got more reviews for that one but I had this chapter done and most of the next so I decided to update. Feel lucky that I did because next time I will wait. Now to the good stuff, my writing.**

**Disclaimer: you see the truth is that I do have over a million dollars and I did buy code Lyoko… but then I woke up and I found out it was all a dream**

Grace paced around the computer room. Ulrich, Odd, Aelita, Yumi, and Jeremie watched. Well Jeremie was monitoring Kristina's health points on the screen.

"Her heath points are intact so he's not harming her" Jeremie reported. "What?" Grace snapped out of her trance like state. "He said she hasn't been hit yet" Yumi repeated for Jeremie. "That's not normal" Grace ran over to the screen to look for herself.

Then the card disappeared. "I stand corrected" Jeremie said calmly. "No she devertualized herself" Grace said ending the statement with a sigh.

They herd a noise coming from the elevator, and Kristina came out slightly wobbly with a dazed look on her face. "Kristina!" Grace shouted and ran over to see if she was okay. "What happened?" Grace asked after making sure Kristina was still intact.

"Well...Max was about to hit me, hard I might add, and then...he just stopped and looked at me in a way I never thought I would see him like again... so I looked down and for some strange reason I started to cry. He then said he had never seen me cry before I'm not exactly why but I had to devertualize like I couldn't let myself cry in front of him." Kristina answered looking down in embarrassment.

Just as she finished the elevator door opened and Max and Dan walked in. "You okay?" Dan asked Grace once the door had closed again. "Yah... I'm fine" she said a little confused. "What about you?" Max asked Kristina who was taken aback by the concern in his voice. "I'm fine as well" she answered looking him boldly in the eyes as if daring him to say anything else.

Everyone watched silently afraid to get in between the feuding friends. Finally someone spoke up. "It's almost 9:00 we have 15 min to get back to the dorms before Jim does his rounds" Ulrich was the one to speak up. Everyone nodded and left for the dorms. At the schools doors Yumi turned to the group and said "well I'll see you guys later...hope everything is alright in the morning" "I'll walk you home" Ulrich offered ignoring the stare Odd gave him. "Alright " Yumi said happily.

As the group watched their two friends get swallowed up by the darkness Odd mumbled "hope he says it this time". "I hope so to" Aelita added heading into the building closely followed by Jeremie who had offered as well to walk her to her room.

"Well... goodnight" Odd said with a huge yawn and left for his dorm on the next floor, leaving the four fuming friends alone together.

Kristina and Max each turned to each other simultaneously and just look into each others eyes for the longest time before Dan interrupted the awkward silence. "Well...um...I think we should leave them alone for a bit...don't you Grace? Can I walk you to your room?" he asked with an overly exaggerate bow and offering his arm. Rolling her eyes at Kristina Grace took his offered arm and they walked away leaving the two friends alone.

After a few minutes Max said "so...um..." "Is that all you can say?" Kristina asked in annoyance. "No... but do you have anything better to say?" Max asked "Yah... bye" Kristina said starting to walk away.

"Oh one more thing" she said turning back around "why the hell do you have it out for me and Grace?" "Oh... well Xana he, well it, sometimes takes control over me. Actually the only time I have total control is right after I come back from Lyoko trips." Max answered looking down as he finished.

Kristina looked at him like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Why didn't you tell us?" She asked. "It's not a big deal I just get a little snappy that's all. Plus it's not like I've had ample amounts of time to tell you, it happened that day Xana took over me and tries to get rid of you... for good and after that we moved remember." Max acted like it wasn't a big deal.

"This is a huge deal this kind of problem doesn't go away it only gets worse. You need to get rid of the virus before it gets irreversible. Trust me you don't want it to get that far." Kristina saw his eyes flicker purple for a split second and she wondered why she didn't notice it before.

"I can handle it I don't need help" Max replied becoming stubborn. "Fine be that way" Kristina turned to leave but stopped and turned back around. "Just one question" Max shrugged "shoot."

"What about in Lyoko today... how come you didn't kill me? You know you have the powers to do it and Xana had control?" Kristina asked all hostility that may have been in her voice at one time gone and replaced by curiosity. "Well when I saw you start to cry...it kinda...well brought back memories... you know from when you and me were dating." "Oh" was all Kristina could say.

They stood there looking at their feet before Max said "well I think we should get to our dorms...you know before Jim finds us." "Yah... we should" Kristina whispered.

"Would you like an escort?" Max asked her. "You don't have to" she replied starting to walk towards her dorm once again. "What if I want to?" He asked. Kristina sighed knowing he wouldn't give up. "Fine" she replied irritably. Jogging to catch up Max link his arm around hers though he quickly removed it when Kristina sent him a sideways glare.

When they got there they heard voices inside Kristina's dorm. Looking at each other with confused looks Kristina took out her key and unlocked the door soon pushing it open.

Looking around she saw Grace sitting with her knees up against her chest on her bed while Dan sat in the desk chair. They were looking in opposite sides of the room when they noticed Kristina they both jumped.

"Took you guys long enough" Dan said being the first to recover. "Yes well...we had a lot to talk about" Max said with a glare in Dan direction. "And what were you guys doing?" Kristina asked Grace her eyebrows raised.

"We were talking about..." she started to answer but Dan cut in with a wary glance in Max's direction and said "about what we did in the span of time when we weren't talking."

"I thought I told you, you have no business talking to Dan and you have no business talking to Grace!" Max said to them both his tone of voice changing instantly.

"Xana has a, shall we say a certain influence on Max at times mostly when he's in Lyoko" Dan muttered to Grace for he had moved to be next to her.

"What's happening?" she asked him in even a quieter whisper from fright. "Xana" Dan said then he turned to Max "we should go before Jim comes." "Yes, we should" Max replied. As they left Dan turned to Kristina and Grace and mouthed the word 'sorry'.

As soon as the boys left the room they could hear Jim yelling something along the lines of what are you doing on the girls floor. Kristina sighed "can't they go 12 min without getting in trouble?" "Nope" Grace answered. Kristina opened the door to see Jim standing with Dan and Max a stern look on his face.

"Hey Jim, it's ok they were helping us un pack in exchange for showing them around the school, they were just leaving" Kristina put on an innocent smile to make it convincing.

Jim grumbled for a moment "yah alright but I better not catch them on this floor at this hour again." "You won't" Kristina promised trying to stay pleasant. The boys quickly nodded.

Jim obviously bought it and kept on walking down the corridor.

"You so owe me for that" Kristina said her dropping the innocent look. "Yah, yah" Dan replied. "Well see you tomorrow in class" Kristina waved goodbye and stepped back into her dorm.

When Kristina came back into the room Tiggy was waiting with her laptop case. "You really scare me with the way you now these things you know that?" She picked up the kitten with one arm and the laptop case in the other.

"What are you looking for?" Grace asked from her position at her drawing desk. "Dan said that Xana takes over Max a lot right?" Kristina sat down on her bed and booted up the laptop soon opening a Lyoko character analyzation file. "Yah" Grace responded not really seeing where this was going. "Who situation dose that sound like?" Kristina asked. "Yours" Grace was still confused.

"So maybe we have a similar problem and all he needs to do is work on his resistance" Kristina opened a picture of her virtual DNA. "So you think you can help with that?" Grace got up from her desk and sat next to Kristina so she cold see the screen.

"Xana only seems to have a slight hold on him that's probably because right after that cliff incident we moved cutting him off from Lyoko thus preventing the virus from progressing" Kristina explained. "Have you been thinking about this for a while?" Grace asked. "No, but it makes sense" Kristina answered. Grace nodded in agreement.

Kristina pulled up pictures of both hers and Max's virtual DNA and placed them side by side.

"See" she said pointing to the DNA. "That's the virus Xana put in me" Kristina indicated to the black segments that was imbedded into the normal ones. She then pointed to Max's "they're only a little different my guess is that his we could get rid of his if we found out more about it because it doesn't seem to be imbedded like mine is."

"So how did Max get his?" Grace asked. "No idea, don't think it was the scyphozoa though." Kristina selected one of black spots on Max's DNA that shouldn't have been there and ran a scan on it.

Kristina yawned and set the laptop aside. "I'm going to bed I'll figure this out after school tomorrow."

Throwing on some bed cloths she jumped in-between her comforters.

**Ok the numbers of reviews on the chapters are starting to go down, and that my dear reader is bad. So I will only update when you guys reach a least 5 reviews but the story that gets the most reviews will get updated before the others. So if you don't review this story will start to update a lot less than it already is and I know for a fact some of you wouldn't like that. There is only one way t o avoid this horrible fate… review!**

**purplepaw**


	7. An Early Morning Lesson

**This is a gigantic chapter so feel lucky. Ok I know I should be updating Sasha but you guys reached the 5 reviews and I had this chapter done so I figured what the heck. So nothing much to say so I'll just do the disclaimer and you can read the story.**

**Disclaimer: I read in the newspaper that I didn't own Code Lyoko…. Ok not really but it's true**

Grace's alarm went off at 4:30 A.M. She quickly shut it off so not to wake Kristina who was very sensitive to alarm clocks. Grace quietly threw on a pair of cloths hoping she put on matching ones for she couldn't put the light on. She slipped her black sweatshirt and a pair of shoes on and quietly stepped out of the door.

"Boo" Dan appeared before her as if a curtain of invisibility had been pulled off of him. Grace jumped and made a squeak. "Don't ever do that again" she warned. Dan snickered "by the way your friend is up" Dan motioned toward her dorm door.

"Kristina?" Grace asked. "Duh" Dan replied. "Now come on we need to hurry she's starting to wonder where you went" Dan informed her as he offered his hand. She sighed and took it. He smiled and they both turned invisible.

The two of them walked down the corridor invisible to anyone who happened to be wandering the corridors. They passed Jim a few times and Grace couldn't resist sticking out her tongue once or twice.

"You are so juvenile" Dan remarked as he rolled his eyes. "Couldn't pass up a golden opportunity" She responded as she pushed open the main doors.

The crisp early morning air sent a shiver down her spine. Dan noticed this "you cold?" "What do you think?" She asked sarcastically.

He smiled traced her charm with his finger. Grace felt the much needed extra energy flow through her. The extra energy she put to good use keeping herself warm.

"Thanks, but you didn't have to do that" she stated knowing what he did for her. "Did you forget what my job is?" He asked as they started to walk through the forest just outside of Kadic. Grace sighed "no I didn't, I entrusted you with those powers I should know exactly how much power you have over my charm shouldn't I?" "Just checking" He brought his attention back to his surroundings.

"We're going to have to fly from here" Dan said stepping into the middle of a forest clearing. "Why?" she asked not really seeing any need to. "Because I've got the perfect place for your training and it would take much longer to walk from here. That's time we don't have." Dan said.

"How can you fly?" Grace asked momentarily confused. "Dragons can fly can't they" Dan asked as if it was obvious. "Well me and Kristina can't" Grace said still confused. "Boys dragons mature faster than girls do" Dan explained. "So?" Grace asked.

Just then two jet black wings sprouted from Dan's shoulder blades. One wing smacked Grace in the face. She fell back landing on the wet grass. Dan started to laugh.

Grace not finding this amusing stood up and smacked him across the face. "Ouch, that hurt" he whined. "You deserved it" Grace countered. "Do you want to walk up the cliff instead?" Dan asked. Grace looked up to see a cliff looming above her and quickly answered "no."

"Then come here" Dan pointed at the ground at his feet. Grace obeyed and stood facing him. "Turn around" Dan instructed. Grace mumbled something under her breath but did as she was told.

Dan grabbed her around her waist. Grace jumped slightly. Dan chuckled "sorry, didn't mean to surprise you. Now hold on" Dan kicked off the ground.

"Don't you dare drop me" Grace warned. "Don't you trust me?" Dan asked in a fake hurt voice. "Define trust" Grace asked.

Dan loosened his grip on her waist allowing her to fall slightly. Grace squealed. Dan burst out laughing. "I'm not going to drop you" he promised. "Besides we're here."

Dan touched down on the forest floor. "Be happy that I'm not such a bad flyer" Dan's wings melted into his back. "Kristina's tons better" Grace mumbled under her breath. "What was that?" Dan asked raising an eyebrow. "Nothing" Grace said innocently. Dan didn't buy it but didn't pester her further.

Grace looked around, they were at a clearing at the top of a cliff. Woods lined them on three sides while the cliff lined the other. A small stream ran through the woods peeking out at them through the grass. It was calm and peaceful, the perfect place for training in the early morning.

"So what should we work on first?" Grace asked. "How about your aim" Dan suggested. "What's wrong with my aim?" Grace asked hurt. "It stinks" Dan responded flatly.

He started to draw in the air. Where his finger traced the air shimmering purple outline of a bull's-eye appeared. "Ok shoot one of your arrows through the center." Dan instructed.

"Ok" Grace created her bow made of ice and soon to go with it an arrow. She placed the arrow in her bow and pulled back.

"Wait" Dan stopped her. He walked up to her and placed his finger on her arrow. The color changed to match the drawing that was still floating in the air. "What was that for?" Grace asked. "It'll leave a mark when it goes through the bull's-eye" Dan answered.

Grace just shrugged and went back to work. She pulled back on the string and released the arrow. The arrow left a mark dead center. "As you were saying" Grace said very pleased with her work.

Dan didn't reply he just wiped his hand over the target making it disappear. "Let's work on your control a little then." "How exactly do you do that?" Grace asked curious.

"It deepens on the element, actually your element has the more creative one" Dan went rummaging through his black backpack that he had brought searching for something. Grace huffed and crossed her arms over her chest tapping her foot impatiently.

"Got it" Dan pulled out a black notebook with a silver Xana symbol on the front and showed it to Grace. "What is that?" she asked. "I keep all my training ideas in it. I used to help Max a lot with training back in the states so I figured that I might want to keep all my ideas in one place. Sometimes out of boredom I would figure out how I would train you and Kristina if I ever got the chance. Not that Kristina would ever let me train her but still." Dan smiled at Grace and started to flip through the pages.

"And this is all the stuff on the element ice and water" Dan pointed to a page filled with his handwriting. "How can you read that?" Grace asked who was trying with no success to read it.

"Yah, my penmanship isn't the best I get that from my L.A. teacher a lot" Dan replied.. "So getting back to the training lets see what you can do. I want you to form a pyramid with your ice." Dan instructed as he sat down on the grass not caring if it was wet. He placed his notebook in her lap open to the correct page.

"Ok" Grace held her hand out flat. In the center of her palm an ice pyramid took form. "Easy" she tossed the pyramid to him. He wordlessly caught it and set it aside.

"Ok, now what about a rectangular prism that's a little harder" Dan flipped though his notebook as he spoke. "If you like this way of fine tuning my control I'd hate to see the others" Grace remarked. You could tell she was getting bored fast.

Dan looked up from his notebook. "I wouldn't be complaining if I were you" he told her sternly. She grumbled under her breath, but used the same procedure to create her rectangular prism.

With out warning she tossed the ice chink at Dan. Dan wasn't aware of the flying ice chunk and it hit him in the head. "Hey what was that for?" He snapped rubbing the spot where the ice hat hit him. "Heads up" Grace warned playfully. She had a very satisfied look on her face. "Gee thanks for the warning" Dan's voice was laced with sarcasm.

"You're welcome, now what's the next shape I need to make?" Grace asked. Dan sighed and glanced at his paper before responding. "Since you seem to have no trouble with the shapes why not just skip ahead to the hardest one, a sphere."

"How is that hard?" She asked. "Have you ever tried to make a perfectly round sphere?" Dan asked raising an eyebrow. "No" Grace answered truthfully. "Well I think you'll find it a little more difficult than the others" Dan told her.

"Fine" Grace used a different method to form her sphere. Instead of letting it just come together on her palm she used both hands to help the ice shape in her hand. When she was done she had a perfectly round sphere in her hands. "I still don't see what was so hard" Grace said to him this time making sure he was paying attention this time before she tossed it over to him.

"Can we do something a bit harder this is boring me" Grace whined. Dan was about to answer when he noticed the sun's position in the sky. Dan quickly glanced at his watch.

"Sorry not today it's getting to be around the time people are going to start getting up and we should be back in our dorms before then." Dan remarked. Grace gave an annoyed groan. "Alright" her voice wasn't as friendly as it was a minute ago.

Dan stood up and stuffed his notebook into his bag along with the three shapes Grace had formed.

Dan swung his bag onto his shoulder and soon his wings appeared. "Ok let's go back down come here" Dan motioned for her to come to him. Grace obediently stood facing away from him. This time she didn't jump when he put his arms around her. "Ok hold on" Dan jumped of the ledge.

In a matter of second they both had their feet firmly on the ground. Dan's pitch black wings disappeared once more.

They had only walked a few feet before Dan brought up something that Grace wasn't to keen to talk about. "What's wrong with Kristina? She was keeping me awake most of the night with her charm waves." Dan's voice was soft. Grace took a deep breath. "I can't tell much it wouldn't be right for me to tell her secret. Let's just say that Max left more of an impression than he thinks he did."

"Are you the only one who knows?" Dan asked. "Yah, she only trusts me with these kinds of problems" Grace answered. "Has it always been this bad?" Dan asked his voice was somewhat concerned. Grace shrugged "I can't sense her charm waves like you can I won't know how bad it was until I talk to her."

Grace looked up from her feet which she had been staring at through the conversation. She could see the school.

"Give me your hand we're going to need it this close to school" Dan offered her his hand once more. She took it and soon the two of them were invisible.

The two walked silently to Grace's dorm room. Dan's come first being on the lower floor but Grace couldn't be invisible without him so he walked her to her dorm.

Grace placed her had on the door knob and slowly turned it. Dan didn't know why she was hesitating so much. It was her dorm and it wasn't like she had done anything bad recently.

Ok, scratch that she just broke one of the biggest rules: no being out of your dorm past curfew. She had also let a boy on the girls' floor, another big no no. Not to mention that together the two of them had snuck off of campus.

Grace opened the door and stepped in her room. Still holding Dan's hand she turned around and looked down the halls. Noticing that no one was there she smiled at Dan and released her hand from his.

The minute she did she was visible. She muttered what Dan thought to be a 'thanks' and closed the door.

Grace was still facing the door yet to turn around and see how Kristina was. Worrying about what she would see Grace took a deep breath and turned around.

Kristina was sitting on her bed her back against her headboard. Her knees pulled against her chest. Her red comforter rested over her knees and below her chin which was placed atop her knees. One arm was placed around her legs while the other was stroking Tiggy who was sleeping in a heap by her side.

Grace sighed and ran her hand through her hair. She walked across the room and sat at the end of Kristina's bed. "How bad was it?" She asked quietly. Kristina didn't answer. This usually meant it was pretty bed.

"You're keeping Dan awake with those charm waves of yours" Grace continued even if Kristina was in no mood to talk with her. "Good for him" Kristina mumbled.

"Did you ever think about the fact that if you're affecting Dan how much Max must be able to detect it?" Grace asked her. Kristina's head shot up from her knees "shoot, I forgot."

"Well then you better cheer up before he asks you what's wrong" Grace stood up and started to gather her things for class together. "Because he's one of the only people I can't lie to pulse he's my charm keeper which means he's be able to detect if I was lying anyway, I know, I know, I know." Kristina said as if she had said it a million times and was growing tired of it, which she had.

Kristina tossed her blankets aside and being careful not to crush Tiggy, got up. "So where did you and Dan go this morning?" Kristina asked while grabbing her cloths from her drawer. "What makes you think I was out with Dan last night?" Grace asked calmly.

"Being a power element has its advantages" Kristina said a smirk place appropriately on her face. "Why did my roommate have to have a power element?" Graced asked no one in particular. "Because I rock" Kristina said smugly. Kristina could tell that Grace was refraining from throwing an ice chunk at her.

Kristina just smirked and grabbed her black and red messenger bag. "Come on we were going to meet everyone outside before class." Kristina reminded Grace.

Grace mumbled something under her breath. "What was that?" Kristina asked raising an eyebrow. "I said you power dragons think you know everything." Grace repeated so Kristina could understand her.

"Not everything but definitely more than you healing ones do" Kristina answered. Grace sighed and slung her blue and purple backpack over her shoulder. "Come on o' mighty dragon of power we have to meet the others." Grace said her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Yah, yah I'm coming" Kristina replied irritably. Soon she followed Grace out the door.

**Ok so review and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I finish up chapters for two other stories that need to be updated. Which could take a bit of time… poor Code: Warriors it's got under 5 reviews so it's going to have to be ignored for a bit longer until I have time to work on it.**

**purplepaw**


	8. Kristina's Loyalty

**Wow this is a massive chapter but I had fun with it especially since the teacher mentioned in this chapter is real and I hate her with great intestacy. Anyway other than the disclaimer I don't have anything else to say.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko plain and simple**

Grace and Kristina approached the bench where everyone appeared to be waiting for them.

"Hey guys" Kristina called out. The two received various forms of hello.

"Are we waiting for Yumi?" Grace asked setting her bag down. "Yep she's the only one not here" Jeremie replied rather cheerfully.

Odd was about to open his mouth to say something when Kristina cut him off. "Let me guess you want to know why a. you could sense us coming b. why you can tell the ones with charms apart with out looking at us c. why my charm waves were keeping you up last night or d. where Grace and Dan went last night around 4:30 a.m." Odd looked dumbfounded. "Yah those" he replied sheepishly.

"Ah the advantages of having a power element" Kristina said as she sat down on the grass. Grace rolled her eyes.

"Wait a minute where did you go last night?" Max asked Dan in a hostile tone.

"Yah about the Xana thing" Kristina stood up and walked over to Max. After studying him for a moment she reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver dragon claw hanging from a silver chain. She placed it in her pocket.

"Feel better?" She asked him. "Yah... what did you do?" He asked in a dazed voice. Kristina smiled. "That charm is what gives Xana his hold on you. This will just be temporary until we get your resistance up then you can have it back." Kristina shook her head. "Now back to Odd's questions."

Kristina opened her backpack and placed the confiscated charm into it.

"Hey" Yumi's voice came from behind Kristina. Various greetings followed and she took a seat next to Ulrich on the bench arm rest.

"To answer your questions Odd you are noticing the power elements special ability. The ability is to be able to sense other people who have charms. The dragons have always called them dragon senses but I guess that name doesn't work for you" Kristina was interrupted but Ulrich "what do you mean by sense them?"

"It works kinda like a radar system. That's not all though you can sense someone's feeling in a way, you can tell when someone is in trouble or hurt or scared." Kristina explained then added. "This is how I knew that Grace left our room last night." Kristina glared at Grace who looked down out of embarrassment.

Just as Kristina opened her mouth to continue the bell rang for class. "I'll finish telling you after class." Kristina promised as she reached into her bag and pulled out Max's charm. 'I can't leave this in my bag for someone to find' she thought and stuck it into her pocket, which would be the biggest mistake she would make all day.

Kristina slung her bag over her shoulder and walked to her next class, math with Mrs. Conant. She looked up to see that she had lost the others unintentionally.

Realizing that she would be late she broke into a run down the hall. "Kristina I thought I told you no running in the halls!" Jim yelled from behind her. She had met him earlier when she had been running to breakfast to grab a bite before she met the others. She stopped and turned around. "I'm sorry Jim but I'm late I was just trying to get to class on time" she was hoping that she wasn't going to get a detention slip. "Alright it's your first day of classes I'll let it go" Jim said with a friendly smile. "Thanks Jim now I'm really late and I got to go" Kristina turned around and walked really fast to the class room.

Kristina sighed and stepped into the class room. She didn't have this class with Grace but she did notice that Max, Dan and Aelita were in the class.

She turned to see the teacher tapping her ruler on her hand impatiently obviously mad about the fact that she was late. "I'm sorry I was caught running in the halls by Jim and he stopped me" Kristina tried to defend herself. Mrs. Conant looked at her sternly "alright I'll give you some slack because it's your first day, but no more." "Yes Mam" Kristina promptly replied.

"Now take a seat next to Aelita there" Mrs. Conant pointed her ruler at Aelita. Kristina smiled at her fortune and sat down next to Aelita.

It was about 15 minutes into the lesson on dividing and multiplying integers when Kristina felt a headache coming on. Kristina knew what the cause was and soon smacked herself mentally for not giving Max's charm to Dan to hold.

She scribbled a note to Aelita to tell her about the circumstances. Right after she was done she promptly passed out onto the floor. "Kristina!" Mrs. Conant screamed. "Dan go get the nurse" she instructed Dan. Dan nodded and ran toward the door.

Aelita looked to the piece of paper and gasped. "Dan get the others not the nurse!" Aelita yelled just in time for him to leave the room.

Max looked at Aelita for an explanation of what was going on. It took a moment for Aelita to realize that Max didn't know about Kristina's virus. "Watch her" Aelita instructed Max pointing to Kristina. "I'll be right back" Aelita ran out of the room.

Everyone was thoroughly confused now and was staring at Max. "What I don't know what is going on" he confessed truthfully.

Meanwhile Aelita was running down the hall. She was trying to get to her dorm and grab one of the injections that she had prepared the night before. She spotted a fire alarm and quickly pulled the handle. She needed to get everyone away from Kristina as soon as possible.

"Where is she?" Aelita turned around to see Grace, Ulrich, Odd, and Dan running down the hall. "Mrs. Conant's class, the only one who is with her is Max and he has no clue what's going on Grace you need to go and help him, take the others with you." Aelita turned around and continued on her way to her dorm.

"Where are you going?" Grace asked. "To get an injection" Aelita replied without turning around.

A look of horror crossed her face. "Oh, God" Grace turned and ran down the hall. As Grace and the others ran down the hall they saw kids walking out of the school completely oblivious to the danger.

Back in Mrs. Conant's room Max was getting worried. He was Kristina's charm keeper he could tell that the problem was Xana related, he could feel her charm waves pulsing with Xana's energy.

Then to his classmates horror Kristina was engulfed by a black flame. It was in that second that the fire alarm went off.

Everybody was stalk still. It then occurred to Max that black flames weren't real in the regular world. "Come on what can we do for her now we need to get you out of here" Max instructed.

"Come on kids we need to get out of here, calmly." Mrs. Conant stated shakily. The kids ran out of the door frightened despite there teachers warning not to. Mrs. Conant soon left to catch up with her class.

Max who hadn't moved looked down at Kristina staring in disbelief. The flame started to disappear. Left in its place was what looked like Kristina in her Lyoko form though Max didn't recognize the colors.

The black dragon stood up and Max knew instantly that it was Kristina. He then noticed the pendant hanging from her neck, Xana.

"What do you think now Max?" She asked in a dark tone. "How do you feel knowing that you caused this?"

"How did I do this to you?" Max asked slightly intimidated by Kristina. Kristina pulled his charm out of her pocket. "This charm had Xana in it that's what gave you his control over you. She took it and it doubling with her own Xana problems pushed her over the limit and Xana took control." Kristina smirked satisfied with her answer.

"What are you talking about? Kristina doesn't have any Xana problems. I'm the only on with this problem." Max snapped. "There are many things that she kept from you. You know she took that charm from you knowing what it would do to her, what pain it would cause her. It's funny even through all the things you've done to her she'll still go out of her way to save you." Kristina threw the charm to the ground. "What!" Max asked in disbelief. "Yes...she took it to save you pain completely uncaring about herself. Honestly this girl has the loyalty of a dog; she just won't stop protecting the things she cares for." Xana said through Kristina.

Suddenly outside the door they heard the scuffle of feet and the handle to the door turned. Kristina turned her head toward the door then looked back at Max and in that second Max saw a glimmer of the old Kristina in those cold dark eyes begging for help and glazed in pain. Then with a last evil smile she spread her long black wings and took into the air bursting through the door seconds before the others opened it, knocking them down. Dan being the first one to get up looked around and saw Max standing in the middle of the room staring at the last place Kristina had been.

Walking over to him Dan put his hand on his friends shoulder. "You okay?" "Yah... I'm fine." Max said picking up his charm from the ground. He rubbed the charm in-between hid thumb and forefinger feeling that the connection with Xana had disappeared. "He okay?" Grace asked walking over to join them holding the needle Aelita had gone to get. "I'm not sure" Dan said looking up at her.

"Why?" Max mumbled half to himself. "Why what?" Aelita asked walking up. "Why did she do it?" "Do what?" Dan asked. "Take the charm and put herself in danger?" "I think I why" Grace opened her mouth to explain further but suddenly they heard a thunk and looked over top the window to see Mrs. Conant being held up to the window by none other then Kristina.

Smiling widely she waved and flew off leaving a dazed teacher sitting on the windowsill only to return moments later with a hysteric Sissy. "Think we should save them?" Ulrich asked. "No" Odd answered smiling broadly as Mrs. Conant started to bang on the window. "Come on...we have to catch her" Dan said transforming into his Lyoko form causing the teacher to faint and fall off the windowsill.

"Oops" Dan said smiling. "She had it coming anyway" Max said who had come back to his normal state and had transformed as well. "That is so not fair" Grace complained as Dan prepared to take off. "Sorry...but you'll soon be able to as well" Dan said taking time to give her a comforting smile then flew off after Max.

Grace crossed her arms in mock anger then had to laugh as Odd copied her. "You know... if I didn't know you better I'd say you both were sweet on each other" Odd said earning himself a hard smack from a blushing Grace.

"Come on we should go to the factory" Jeremie said walking out the door. "You coming?" Odd asked Grace who hadn't moved from her spot. "I think I'll stay here this is where I'll be most useful." Grace said looking out the window at Dan and Max who were fighting off an obviously stronger Kristina. "Okay I understand... you want to watch your boyfriend right" Odd said dodging out of the room before Grace could get a swing at him.

Sighing Grace went and stood at the window watching the boys struggle to fight off Kristina who was throwing huge balls of black flames at them.

Suddenly a huge flame smashed into Max and Dan at the same time and they both got thrown into the classroom through the window. This caused Grace to lose her balance and fall backwards.

Picking herself up Grace looked over to see them both lying on their backs breathing heavily. Quickly she walked over to Max who was closest. Gently she placed her hand on his chest and murmured a few choice words.

Suddenly Max's eyes opened "thanks" he said sitting up slowly. "Max I'm sorry but the quickest way to get her back to normal would involve you kissing her... umm ...on the lips" Grace said looking down as she said this. "What!" he asked.

"If you don't like the idea of kissing her think of it as the way you are going to save the school not to mention your own hide" Grace pointed out harshly. Max reluctantly nodded.

"I'll tell Dan once I heal him what your going to do...I'm sure he could distract her." Grace explained.

"Ok" Max sighed getting up and dived out the window toward Kristina who was starting to terrorize the students again. Getting up Grace walked over to Dan and placed her hand on his chest and muttered the same special words. Slowly Dan's eyes opened. "Thanks...where's Max?" Dan asked sitting up even slower then Max.

"He...well...he went after Kristina" Grace said. "What...I have to go then" Dan said starting to get up but Grace pushed him back down.

"Listen to me" she said keeping her hand on him to keep him down. "Max has to kiss Kristina to get her back to normal quicker because it will take forever to where her down now that she has the power of two Xana infested charms." She said quickly. "So you need to distract her... even get hit a couple times so he can get to her." She finished then added, "if you do get hit don't worry I'm a healing dragon remember" Smiling she then stood up to allow him to stand up as well.

Max had been dealing with Kristina outside. She had always been a fighter and right now Max was wishing that he hadn't done such a good job training her.

He ducked just missing Kristina's claws. Pulling his sword from its sheath he sent a light wave at Kristina. It hit her chest and sent Kristina crashing into a tree behind her. Max pinned her to the tree before she could get away.

His claws dug into the bark pinning her arms to the wood. She struggled kicking out at him with all of her strength. Max rapped his tail around her's and her legs to keep her from kicking out at him.

Kristina now couldn't move. She was bound by Max against the tree. She beared her fangs and started at him with her now hard dark purple eyes.

Max could feel the heat from her claws growing and knew she was creating a fireball. He then noticed that she wasn't aiming the heat at him for if she wanted to she could just burn him where his hands held her wrists to the bark..

It dawned on him that she was aiming at Grace who was still stationed in the class room with Dan. Knowing it was now or never and he pressed his lips to hers. The salty tang of her blood from her bleeding lip flooded his mouth but he didn't pull back.

Grace and Dan were getting up and making there way to the window. Just then they saw a flash from outside and turned to the window just in time to see Max lean in and place his lips against Kristina's who had just shot a large ball of fire at Grace and Dan. As the ball of fire hurtled toward Grace Dan pushed her out of the way. This happened just as Kristina began her transformation back to normal with Max still holding his lips to hers.

The ball of fire smashed into Dan's side as they both landed in that all too famous position with him on top of Grace. The minute they landed though Dan passed out and Grace looked out the window to see Kristina totally transformed into her normal self.

Max removed his hold on the teenage girl and changed back to his normal form as well. As she landed on the ground her knees crumpled under her weight and she blacked out.

Turning back to Dan Grace placed her hand on his chest for the second time and healed him while he was still on top of her for she was unable to move his weight. As he came around Jeremie set the return to the past and as the huge dome of light engulfed them Dan opened his eyes and smiled at her while she blushed.

Soon they all found themselves back at the bench with Kristina in a crumpled heap and Max bending over her.

Kristina still looked beat up. She had a long bleeding cut from her shoulder to her elbow from one of Dan's claws that was sure to need stitches. Her cheeks were scraped and her lip was bleeding. Not to mention that her hands were a scratched up and she had a good sized gash on her left leg that looked deep and would probably need stitch or two as well. Though what looked the worst by far was the large scratch along her chest.. It wasn't very deep but it was bleeding like crazy. The blood was seeping through her top making her look even more a mess than she was.

"What's the matter with her? Why didn't the return to the past heal her?" Max asked Aelita who had gone over to join him. "When these attacks happen she doesn't get healed buy the return to the past, but she should be waking up soon" Aelita said looking up at Grace for support. "Yah she should be" Grace said breaking her eye contact with Dan. "Although... since Xana did have double the attack power it might take a little longer." She added.

"Come on... we should get her to the infirmary right away" Grace said walking over to Kristina's limp body.

Max picked her up bridal stile and started to walk to the infirmary not caring if the girl's blood was seeping onto his cloths. "You guys coming?" He shouted over his shoulder.

"Yep" they all answered.

**Ok just out of curiosity I'm holding a poll to see which one of the Dragons of Lyoko you like best…**

**Kristina**

**Grace**

**Dan**

**Max**

**So tell me in the review you had planned on giving me, and like I said before this won't affect the story I'm just curious**

**purplepaw**


	9. Hospitalized

**I know a lot of you who red this story read Sasha was well so I'm apologizing here for my lack of typing on the chapter but I've hit a small road block and it might take a bit to sort it out. other than that I can't think of anything I've got to say so I'll just explain that I still don't own Code Lyoko and never will and you can get to the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: read above **

Grace sat in the hospital waiting room thumbing through Dan's notebook of training techniques. Kristina had been admitted earlier that day when nurse Dorothy said that she was in need of hospital treatment. Despite the groups protests they weren't allowed to come to the hospital till after class.

Now everyone sat in the waiting room. Everyone seemed worried and they had a right to be.

Aelita seemed to be the most worried though. When she had found out she had spent the next half hour not saying anything to anyone and then after school she spent quite a bit of time crying into Jeremie's shoulder.

Grace was probably the least fazed by this whole event. This was normal for her Kristina almost always has to go to the hospital after attacks like this.

The reason that they were sitting in the waiting room was because Kristina had been put into surgery after the discovery that the lower part of her right arm had been broken beyond what a cast could fix and needed to be repaired with a couple of pins.

Because of the blood loss she had suffered she couldn't undergo the surgery before it got to a certain point. Kristina had apparently reached the point just before everyone got to the hospital.

"Are you here to see Kristina?" A female nurse with black hair and a blue nurses uniform asked the group. "Yah we are," Ulrich replied. "Well she's out of surgery now so you can see her." The nurse replied with a smile. "Thanks," Jeremie replied after letting go of a teary eyed Aelita.

"I'll show you to her room if you will follow me," The nurse said as she lead the group out of the waiting room. Everyone got up and followed her out of the room.

The gang was lead down the halls to a room marked

Room 113 

Kristina L. Ebony

"She's sleeping so don't wake her up ok she needs it." The nurse told then before leaving them in front of the door. Yumi opened the door and they stepped into the room.

The room like the rest of the place smelled of disinfectant. Not the most appealing smell but it was tolerable. The room had light purple walls and a rose colored tiling on the floor. Kristina's room was brightly lit with the light poring in from the one large window on the opposite side of the room. Along the left wall sat Kristina's hospital bed. It was white with lavender colored sheets.

The only sounds in the room was the pitter patter of feet as everybody walked into the room along with the steady beeping of Kristina's heart monitor.

Everybody crowded around the bed. The nurse was right, she was sleeping. It didn't' seem to be the most peaceful sleep she ever had either, her face was slightly scrunched up as if she was having a nightmare of sorts.

Other than the heart monitor she had two IVs hooked up to her left hand. One was giving her blood from a bag marked A+ to make up for the blood loss, the other was feeding her some kind of clear liquid.

The lower part of her right arm was wrapped up in a red cast. The upper part of the opposite arm was wrapped up like a mummy in a white bandage. Her whole chest area was wrapped up in the same type of bandage only this one had blood stains on it. This was visible because she wasn't wearing any shirt. Her cheeks had been cleaned up and a few stitches were visible here and there. Nothing else was visible because from her waist down she was covered by sheets.

"Ouch, you guys did a number on her didn't you" Odd commented. "I suppose most of that was Max's doing really. Like that cut along her cheat that's definitely from him I wouldn't be able to make anything that long." Dan pointed out.

"What are you looking for Max?" Jeremie asked when he noticed Max was walking around the room and seemed to be looking for something. "Her clothes and other things she had on when they brought her in, they would have taken them off and put them somewhere." He answered. Just then his eyes fell upon one of the chairs in the room. In that chair were Kristina's belongings.

"Why are you looking for her cloths?" Ulrich asked confused. "Her charm should be with them" Max answered.

When Max found it in her pants pocket he didn't believe what he was seeing for a moment. "Look at this" he held up he charm which was now a shining mini silver dragon tooth.

"It's different" Odd stated the obvious. "Thanks for the update Sherlock" Yumi stated sarcastically. "Her level's gone up" Max told them.

"Looks like she's going to give you a run for your money Max you might not be the strongest anymore," Dan said with a smirk. "Not likely, male dragons have more physical strength than female ones do." Max said calmly walking back over to the group stationed at Kristina's bedside.

"Then I'll just have to out smart you" came a weak reply. Max looked down to the person lying in the bed.

"Your awake, how do you feel?" Aelita asked. "Well it hurts to breath with this cut across my chest but I'll manage" Kristina's forced a meek smile.

Max placed his hand on the back of his neck. "Sorry about that" he apologized. "You did what you had to do, I understand." Kristina assured him her voice not yet back to normal from the effects of the aesthetic and sleep drugs she had been given.

"Can't one of you healing dragons or whatever you call yourselves take the pain away?" Asked Ulrich. "Yah but we can't do too much because if we heal her to much it will become suspicious." Grace explained. "Makes sense, but I should think that you can at least take some of the discomfort away" Jeremie concluded.

Grace shrugged "I don't see any harm in that." She stepped forward and was about to place her hands on Kristina's chest when Max stopped her. "No let me" he insisted.

"You haven't used your powers on her for ages why now?" Grace asked as she crossed her hands across her chest. "Does it have anything to do with that lip lock that happen earlier does it?" Odd asked a smirk placed on his face.

Max opened up his mouth to say something in his defense but Kristina beat him to it. "Odd lay off, if you had been at the scene you could have very well ended up with that job" Kristina pointed out bluntly.

Kristina then turned to Grace. "You shouldn't be taking this job anyway you must have used up a lot of energy healing the guys while they were fighting me."

Grace in realization that Kristina was right frowned and stepped out of Max's way. Max smiled and walked over to Kristina so he could reach her.

Placing his hands over Kristina's bandaged chest he mumbled a few words so that only he could hear them.

Kristina who had closed her eyes during the procedure opened them slowly with a smile on her face. "I forgot what it feels like for you to do that, you and Grace feel so different. Personally I like yours better, no offence Grace." Kristina added the last part when she saw the look on Grace's face when she said this.

"Oh yah here" Max dug out her charm and held it out for her to take. "Thanks" Kristina took it from him and placed it around her neck. "What are charm keepers for?" He asked with a smile.

"That reminds me Odd hasn't chosen his charm keeper yet." Dan remarked turning to face Odd who was on the opposite side of the bed.

"Charm keeper?" asked Odd not knowing what he was talking about. "A charm keeper is the person who... well they have many jobs. The first one and the most important is your charm keeper would be automatically entitled to hold onto your charm if something were to happen to you. Because heaven knows what would happen if some scientist managed to make one of them release their power. The second is kind of weird but it's the fact that your charm keeper can drain or add to the powers of your charm. This is why you have to be careful about who you chose because if they get mad at you or something they could drain all of your powers leaving you defenseless." Kristina explained.

"Do I have to choose now?" Odd asked worriedly. "No but sooner would be better rather than later." Grace answered his question.

"Who is a charm keeper to whom?" Asked Ulrich. "Max is mine" Kristina restated the information. "Dan is mine" answered Grace. "Dan has mine as well" Max told them. "And Max is my charm keeper" Dan replied. Then Aelita spoke up "and Grace is my charm keeper."

Everyone not counting the dragons looked at Aelita in surprise. She smiled at their response. "Level 13, the only reason that I'm so low is that I don't fight on Lyoko so I only go up when I practice my powers." she explained.

"Where's your charm?" Jeremie asked. "You didn't think that my earring on Lyoko was just an accessory did you?" She asked. "What about on earth?" Yumi asked. "I just keep it in my pocket that's all," Aelita reached into her pocket and pulled it out. "See it's right here my element is earth, a power element oddly enough."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Odd asked. Aelita shrugged "again you never asked."

"Can I just ask a random question that has been bugging me for a while about you dragons?" Yumi asked. "Yah sure" Max replied.

"Why are you guys dragons and the rest of us aren't?" Yumi asked from the chair that she had pulled up next to Kristina's bed to sit in.

"Simple it's in their bloodline," answered Aelita. "Huh?" Asked Odd clearly not getting it.

"Each one of us has an ancestor that was one of the original creators of Lyoko. And to answer the question that some one is going to ask is, no Franz Hopper wasn't one of them he came shortly after, he only created the Xana problem, by accident of course." Max explained.

"But this gene is only passed on by a blood ancestor a one by marriage doesn't count." Grace added her part. "So if I married one of you guys for some reason or another you wouldn't become a dragon." Kristina added the final bit.

As Kristina finished a knock at the door could be heard. Soon a nurse stepped in. "Ok kids visiting time is up but you can see her tomorrow" she said rather cheerily.

Everyone got up some more reluctantly than others and shuffled out of the room. When the door closed the nurse turned to Kristina.

"You seem to have quite a fan club don't you?" She said as she set down the fresh bandages she had been carrying in her arms. "Yah, I guess I do" Kristina replied trying to sound as happy as she could though it is kind of hard to do so when ones voice is a tad raspy.

"Here let me see your arm." The nurse in the light green uniform indicated to Kristina's blood stained bandage. Kristina obediently lifted her arm and rested it on the side rail of the bed.

Kristina winced as the nurse pulled the bandage off of her stitches. "Sorry the bandages tend to stick a bit" the nurse said in a soft tone. Kristina mumbled something under her breath but let the nurse continue.

**--------------Fire--------------**

Grace carelessly kicked pebble form the sidewalk they were walking on.

"I feel bad for Kristina" Yumi spoke up not looking up form the ground. Everybody had been quiet since they left Kristina's room.

"Yah she really took a beating didn't she" Odd said. "She's a fighter she'll pull through." Max told them halfheartedly.

"You've been awfully quiet today and you hardly ate lunch what's up with you?" Dan asked worried for his friend. "Today has just been a lot for me that's all" Max replied as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"It's been hard on all of us but you don't see us not eating do you?" Dan pointed out knowing there was something his friend wasn't telling him. "He's just worried for Kristina you know how he gets, and as a matter of fact I'm worried too she hasn't been this bad in a long time so lay off." Grace said in Max's defense.

"You don't think she has a chance of dying do you?" Asked Odd worriedly. "No it would take a lot more to kill her of course there might be some internal damage that the doctors didn't tell us about but I doubt there's any." Jeremie said reassuringly.

"There isn't any I would have picked it up if she did" Dan and Max said so that one voice overlapped the other a bit.

"You can sense that?" Questioned Yumi. "Yah it would fall under the pain category an internal wound would give out much higher pail level than lets say a broken bone" Grace replied before Max or Dan could even open their mouths.

"There's a lot of stuff to these charms and powers aren't there?" Ulrich asked. Dan shrugged "yah, but you get used to it eventually."

"And you guys have it easy; dragons have to learn a lot more than you do. Do you have any idea how long it takes to get a good grip on flying?" Max pointed out. "I guess you're right," Odd sighed and looked around to get a grip on where they were.

"Hey Yumi do you need to go home now?" Odd asked noticing that this was the street that she took to get home. "Yah I should," she said starting off in the direction of her street.

"Wait up!" Ulrich called after her. "I'll walk you home," he added when he caught up to her. Yumi smiled obviously happy to have Ulrich come with her. "I'll meet up with you guys back at Kadic," Ulrich called over his shoulder.

"They are so obvious," Grace sighed once the two were out of ear shot. "Yah, but trust me it's not worth the trouble to set up a plan to get he two of them together." Odd told her as they rounded the corner to enter the Kadic grounds. "You're probably right," Grace agreed.

**------------Ice------------**

Yumi turned to Ulrich a worried expression on her face. "You have been awful quiet since we left the group and I know something is bothering you." She said stopping in her tracks.

Ulrich took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm just worried," he said simply trying to avoid the topic.

"Do you seriously think I'm going to let you lave it at that?" She asked placing her hands on her hips. "I was hoping so," Ulrich replied sheepishly as he turned to look at her in the eye.

"I'm your best friend Ulrich you can tell me if something is bothering you." Yumi said her expression softening. Ulrich smiled half heartedly, "I know."

"So what is it?" Yumi pestered him. Ulrich just shoved his hands down into his pockets and looked down at the sidewalk.

"Is it something illegal?" Yumi asked slightly worried. Ulrich shook his head, "nothing like that." "Then why are you afraid to tell me?" She asked becoming annoyed at his stubbornness.

"I'm worried about what you'll think," he said sheepishly. She looked at him strangely "what I'll think? Does this have anything to do with Sissy?" She added that last part a bit distastefully. He shook his head once more, "nope nothing to do with her."

"Then why worry I'll still like you no matter what you say." She promised him with a smile. Not like he could see it for he was still looking down at the pavement. "I don't know..." Ulrich said looking up into Yumi's bright brown eyes.

"Come on you can tell me anything... please" Yumi said resorting to puppy eyes which Ulrich fell for almost instantly. "Alright...just don't make that face at me again...it...never mind," Ulrich said blushing then regaining his confidence he returned his gaze to Yumi's face and mumbled. "I'm worried that the same thing that happened to Kristina will happen to you in some way or another...and I might lose you...forever."

Taken aback all Yumi could do was stare. After a while as they neared her house Yumi broke the uncomfortable silence. "Ulrich... I," she started then stopped when he looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Please...please Yumi promise me you will never let me endure losing you...please." Ulrich said a strange urgency creeping into his voice, while grabbing her hand.

"I...I promise" Yumi stuttered, "thank you" Ulrich said smiling then giving her hand a comforting squeeze he turned and began to walk away. After a few steps Ulrich stopped and turned on his heels. Yumi who had been watching him walk away in a daze, jumped a little when he walked back up to her.

"Yumi...I" he began then his voice faltered, in desperation to get his feelings out Ulrich began to lean toward her face. To his surprise he felt her begin to move closer to then he felt her soft sweet lips against his warm dry ones. Unsure of what else to do Ulrich put his arms around her slender waist while she raised her arms and put them behind his neck, ever so slightly deepening the kiss. They stood their occasionally breaking apart enough to catch their breath their lips still gently brushing.

On one of those occasions Ulrich whispered, "Yumi?" "Mmm," she murmured gently kissing him again. "Will you go out with me?" He said. As he said this Yumi broke apart from him to look into his eyes. "Are you serious?" She asked grinning widely.

"Yes" he said shyly without even using words she placed her lips on his kissing which he gladly returned. Once they broke apart Ulrich smiled, "I take that as a yes?" "I'd be worried if you didn't" Yumi giggled.

**Yes, I know poor Kristina and sorry if it seems a bit off in the end because Grace typed all of it (with my editing of course, other wise it would be all one paragraph… sigh) … and if I may say so myself she isn't the best fluff writer in the world, and another thing that has been keeping me form typing lately is my obsession on working on the characters and he plotline of the sequel to this story… yes there is going to be a sequel unless all you readers are totally against the idea though I don't think that's likely. One more thing no Kristina L. Ebony is not my real name I made it up though my middle initial is L, but I'm not telling oyu what it stands for.**

**Ohh and the results of the poll were as follows**

**Kristina: 3**

**Grace: 3**

**Dan: 1 (poor him…)**

**Max: 2**

**I guess me and Grace tied… I included mine and graces count even though she didn't write hers in the right review she wrote it in the code warriors one -.-' and if you didn't count our votes me, Grace, and Max all tied.**

**purplepaw**


	10. A Guarded Heart

**Thanks to Grace the next chapter is already here. I don't have much to say so I'm just going to be quiet now.**

**Disclaimer: one I don't own code Lyoko, and two Dan really isn't that smart in math**

Everybody, except Ulrich who hadn't returned yet, was sitting in Odd's and Ulrich's room. Jeremie was sitting in the desk chair and Aelita sat on the floor at his feet. Grace was sitting on Ulrich's bed. Dan was sitting next to her with Max on the other side of him. Odd was lying on his bed with Kiwi on his stomach.

They had been chatting about nothing in particular when Ulrich walked into the room silently. He still had the stupid grin pasted on his face. He walked over to his bed and would have sat on Grace if she hadn't sent a cold blast up his spine when he attempted to sit down.

"What's the big idea?" She questioned crossly. "Sorry I guess my mind was wandering." Ulrich responded in a voice that was still not quite his own.

"This has Yumi written all over it," Odds grin was now a big as Ulrich's possibly bigger. Ulrich sat down at the foot of Odd's bed where there was room.

"Well what happened?" Aelita questioned after a few moments of silence. Ulrich took in a deep breath, "she kissed me." He blurted out.

"About time, it only took you what, a year?" Odd questioned teasingly. "I wasn't counting the days sorry," Ulrich replied adding a glare for extra measure.

"Well I'm happy for you I've only been here what... two days counting today and it was already obvious." Grace smiled at Ulrich. "Yah good going Ulrich," Jeremie beamed at his friend.

Just then Odd's alarm clock went off. "Supper time!" Odd sprang out of be sending kiwi into Ulrich's lap.

"You have that thing programmed at go off at supper time?" Dan asked eyeing the clock as if it were about to explode.

"This is Odd we're talking about of course it's set for supper time, besides it doesn't wake him up in the morning that's my job." Ulrich stated his voice coming back to normal.

"Ok well we better get down there then we might be able to eat something before Sissy decides to show up," Aelita said getting to her feet. "The chance of that happening is slim," Ulrich replied grimly.

The group walked down the halls and entered the double doors that lead to the cafeteria.

Odd immediately ran into line. Ulrich sighed, "he has the stomach of a cow." "And sometimes I think he has the brain of one," Jeremie replied rather bluntly.

They all sat down at there favorite table after they each had grabbed a plate of food, after about two minutes Odd came to join them with two plates in his hands and one balanced on his head. Carefully he sat down with the plate still on his head.

"That had better not fall on me," Grace snapped at him for she was sitting next to him. Odd snorted in laughter shaking the plate around, "don't worry...I'm an expert." He said smiling at her. Just then his plate slid forward and fell off his head landing in his lap and some food spattering Grace.

Everyone laughed as Odd looked up with food all over his face and chest with a huge grin on his face, while Grace nearly jumped into Aelita's lap in shock.

"Oops," Odd said sheepishly looking at me with a stupid grin on his face. "You are going to die." She said through clenched teeth and threw a piece of buttered bread at him that landed on his face and slid down leaving a trail of greasy white goo.

"Now you asked for it" Odd said and through a handful of peas at her, but she ducked and they hit Aelita getting stuck in her hair. Screeching she glared at Dan from across the table assuming it was him who through it and hit him and the chest with whole cheeseburger.

"Oh...I get it" Dan said then chucked a hotdog at Max for no apparent reason. Soon everyone was throwing food at each other.

Suddenly a high pitched annoying voice said, "you guys are so immature" stopping they all looked up to see Sissy looking down at them with disgust. "Ulrich...why are you ruining your complexion?" She said in a flirtatious voice walking over to him and lifting a piece of lettuce from his hair while caressing his cheek. "Actually this is the newest best thing for your skin," Odd said as Ulrich backed away from Sissy outstretched fingers.

Turning around Sissy stated "I don't believe it," "it's true" Grace agreed reaching around behind Odd and picking up the last of his spaghetti. "Here try some," she added then chucked the handful of pasta at Sissy hitting her full in the face.

Screaming in disgust she ran away not wiping the pasta from her face. Everyone laughed as she ran around blindly shaking her hands with the pasta still clinging to her face. As if things couldn't get any better due to the fact that she couldn't see she ran strait into a wall and landed on top of Herb.

Everyone started laughing hysterically.

"Herb you imbecile watch where your going!" Sissy screeched. Getting up she stopped off her nose held high in the air, a few pieces of noodles still swinging off her face.

"What happened here?" the loud voice penetrated that laughing fit causing it to stop. Slowly everyone turned around to see Principal Delmas towering over them a glare etched across his face.

"Well...we were just...just" Grace stuttered trying to think fast for a good excuse but only succeeded in sounding like an idiot. "That's it, detention tonight, in the library." The principle demanded with cold eyes.

Then as he was walking away he whirled around and added "clean this up." He soon stormed out of the room. Looking around Odd sighed "I'm hungry." "Oh shut up Odd and help us" Ulrich snapped at him while picking up Aelita's now soggy hamburger off the floor.

Later that night they all met up in front of the library. "Well...off to the torture chamber" Odd stated flatly. "Why should you be worried Odd? You spend more time in detention than in the cafeteria and that is saying something." Ulrich commented. Grace snickered and Odd pretended not to hear the comment.

Then the door to the library opened and Jim appeared. "Come on you trouble makers sit down and I better not hear a peep out of you," Jim ordered.

Without much protest the group sat down at the long table. Jim sat at the head of the table and promptly fell asleep. Odd snickered and commented "it usually takes him longer to fall asleep than that."

Odd placed his feet up on top of the table and reclined in his chair so the front legs weren't touching the ground. Jeremie tried to warn him "Odd you leaning to far bac..." Thunk Odd crashed to the floor shaking the whole room.

Jim woke with a start, "wha... what happened?" Noticing Odd on the floor Jim sighed, "that is the third time this week you are going to start breaking all the chairs Della Robbia you need to come with me." Jim took Odd by the arm and started leading him out of the room.

He stopped and turned around, "if anyone moves form there spot when I come back you will have detention form now until the end of the year." Jim warned and walked out of the room Odd close behind.

"That was stupid even for him," Ulrich said bluntly. "Yah, how long do you think it will be before he comes back?" Grace asked referring to Jim. "I'm guessing a good fifteen minutes," Aelita estimated.

"Then I have time to work on a new program I'm designing," Jeremie stated as he pulled out his laptop and him and Aelita immediately began to work on it. Grumbling the others turned back to the work they were suppose to be doing.

Grace started down at her math and groaned. She had never been the best a t math and now without Kristina to help her she was having more trouble than usual.

"Want some help?" Dan asked without looking up from his paper. Grace looked up in surprise 'how did he know?' she asked herself. "Max told me" he replied after writing a -7 on his paper.

"Sure," Grace admitted shyly. Dan smiled and gathered his things. He was sitting across the table from her so he walked around the table to sit next to her.

Max snapped his head up from his work and gave Dan a disgusted look, "Dan stop thinking that you perv." Dan blushed a shade of bright red and sat down.

Grace gave him a quizzical look "what were you thinking?" "Nothing," He quickly muttered. Max shook his head and looked back to his work.

Dan looked at Grace and asked "so what seems to be the problem?" "Everything," Grace responded shyly, she didn't like everyone knowing she had a bit of trouble with math when it seemed to come so easily to all of her friends.

"Okay then we'll start from the beginning of the lesson," Dan smiled and started to explain the lesson to her so even she could understand it.

Everyone sat the rest of the time not saying or doing much, they really didn't want detention all year and weren't planning to risk it.

After about an hour Jim came back into the room. Everyone looked up surprised that it took him so long.

"Alright the principal said to let you guys go now," Jim didn't sound to pleased with the release of his prisoners. Nobody protested as they all gathered their belongings and left the room.

"What was the program you were working on?" Ulrich asked as they walked out of the library. "I'm keeping it a surprise I'll tell everyone when Kristina gets out of the hospital." Jeremie replied obviously not feeling like sharing any information. "Aelita?" Ulrich questioned. "Sorry Ulrich but my lips are sealed." She stated with an impish grin.

"Well what are everyone else's plans for this evening?" Max asked everybody. "I'm going to wait for Odd here" Ulrich said.

"And we're going to my room to work on the program," Jeremie answered for him and Aelita

"Well...I have a lot more work to do on my math among other things so I think I'll go to my dorm to do it." Grace said walking away with her books held tightly to her chest. "Hey...want me to walk you there?" Dan called after her.

She stopped and turned around, "if you don't have anything better to do than sure." Dan grinned and went to catch up with Grace.

"She is so oblivious," Max commented. "I've seen worse" Ulrich commented. "Well I'm going back to my dorm see you later," Max smiled and then walked off in the direction of the boys dorms.

-----------Water------------

Grace walked silently through the halls not making any attempt to say anything to Dan.

"What's up with you?" Dan asked grabbing her arm lightly stopping her in her tracks. "I've just got a lot on my mind right now that all," she said looking straight into his eyes to show him that she was serious. "Now you're acting like Max," Dan stated letting go of her arm.

"Yah but unlike Max I don't have crush issues," Grace pointed out. "You don't like anybody?" He asked in a surprised tone. "That's not what I meant and you know it," she replied as she placed her key into her door.

"Who is it?" Dan asked curiosity coating his voice. "Like I'm gonna tell you of all people" She said as she stepped into her room. Throwing her stuff onto her bed she turned back around and leaned against the door frame.

"Please" Dan asked leaning against the door frame as well as looking her in the eye. "No and please don't make those eyes at me," she said tilting her head away from him breaking the eye contact.

Dan sighed not wanting to push her too much. "Alright at least let me help you with the rest of your math," he said holding onto the door so she couldn't just slam it in his face. She was known to do this.

She didn't say anything for a moment and seemed to be debating on whether or not to let him in. "You know boys aren't allowed in the girls dorm at these hours right?" She questioned. "If Jim comes looking for me I'll just go invisible so he can't see me." He explained. She knew that he was going to say that.

Grace sighed. "Alright it couldn't hurt," she stepped back and allowed him into the room.

"Come out Tiggy," Grace called. Dan was about to ask her what she was doing when a white kitten with black stripes like that of a tigers trotted out from Kristina's bed.

"Whose is that?" Dan asked eyeing the kitten as if it were a bomb. "She's Kristina's," Grace answered, picking the kitten up and walking over to Dan.

"Here pet her," she said holding the kitten out a little so Dan could reach. Dan reached out to pet Tiggy but the little kitten mewed pathetically and hid in Graces arms.

"Don't worry Dan doesn't bite...I don't think," Grace told the kitten soothingly looking up at Dan glaring at him playfully. "I usually don't," Dan laughed then reached out and petted the kitten. After a minute he took his hand away and said "we should get back to work."

"Right...that sounds wrong..." Grace said laughing. "Sicko" Dan said blushing then went to sit on her bed, while she went to get her binder.

Cautiously she sat down on the bed as far away from Dan as possible, "I don't bite," Dan said sliding over to sit next to her. "I know" Grace answered flinching as their shoulders touched. Ignoring her discomfort Dan began to work on his homework, stopping occasionally to help Grace with a problem.

As Grace worked on a particularly hard problem she felt a nudge in her mind. _"Hey," _ A voice said casually in her mind. _"Why are you mind speaking o me?" _ Grace asked Dan with her mind while rolling her eyes. _"So if anyone comes in or is listening on they will only think that we are working and not talking,"_ Dan answered mischievously.

"_Whatever,"_ Grace said trying to concentrate on her work. _"Aw...come on...admit that I am_ _an awesome master mind when it comes to sneaky plans,_"Dan begged. _"All right...your awesome when it comes to master mind plans." _Grace said getting up from her bed and sitting down in front of her computer to look something up.

"_While you're saying all these nice things about me say that you think that I'm hot."_ Dan said grinning madly at Grace's reaction. Whipping around in her chair she shouted "what!"

Smiling Dan put his finger up to his mouth in a silent 'shut up.' Sighing Grace turned back in her chair and didn't respond, _"aw...come on...you know I was kidding right?"_ Dan said with a nervous laugh _"Yah right," _Grace snapped back at him. _"What did I do? I thought we're friends,"_ Dan said quietly sadness creeping into his voice _"Exactly...we're JUST friends...nothing more...nothing less...we can't be anything more." _Grace said trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"_But...why can't we?" _Dan asked confusion in his voice. Startled by his response Grace hesitated. _"Well...b-because...if we do...you know go out...then...it wouldn't be fare to Max and Kristina,_" she finally managed to say.

"_I bet your just scared," _Dan taunted. _"I am not scared...what is there to be scared of...your not that scary?" _Grace asked giving in and returning his jibes. _"I'm not scary...unless you find me scary because I'm so hot,"_ Dan said laughing. _"You're not that scary...besides who filled your head with all this nonsense about you being hot?" _Grace said giggling as Dan faked being hurt.

"_You are so mean," _he said in a fake hurt voice. _"I'm sorry," _she answered giving him puppy eyes. _"I guess it's okay...who could stay mad at you," _he said smiling at me. _"I don't know..." _ She said returning the smile then turned back to her work.

After a few minutes of silence Grace glanced over at Dan to find him just staring at her. "What?" She asked. "Nothing," he said looking way but not before Grace caught a slight blush on his cheeks.

"How come you're so out going when we're mind speaking but not when we're actually just talking?' She asked him curiously. "I don't know," he responded after a few minutes.

Sighing Grace turned back to her math book which she had tossed to the side while she did her English homework. "Hey...Dan I need help," she said after struggling for a few minutes. "With what? Your homework I can help you with...your mental issue I can't...you have to see a doctor for that." He said patting the bed beside him.

Standing up she walked over to sit beside him again then as she sat down she slapped him as hard as she could with her math book. "Ow...what the hell was that for!" he asked rubbing the top of his head. "For saying I have mental issues," she answered innocently turning back to her work.

Shaking his head he began to explain the Pythagorean Theorem for what seemed like the millionth time this night. After they had been working for about an hour Dan was starting to get bored. Glancing over at Grace he saw that her brow was furrowed like it was when she was thinking way too hard about something.

"Hey...why don't we practice for Lyoko...you know see if we can get your level up?" He asked. "Sure," she agreed happy to have an excuse to stop studying.

Taking her hand he went invisible causing them both to disappear. Slowly they walked out of her room and headed toward the cliff they had trained on before.

Once they landed and Dan had put her down did Grace ask, "So...what are we going to do?" "I was thinking we would work on your aim with flying objects your control seems to be fine." Dan said as his wings appeared and he jumping into the air.

"I'd be glad to," she answered materializing her ice bow and arrow soon loading it. "Arctic Arrow!" She shouted aiming at Dan who easily swerved.

"Try aiming at the place where you think they would swerve to" Dan suggested. "Alright," Grace grumbled then re-strung her bow.

Just as she was about to shout she had an idea, slowly she inched over to the stream that ran through the cliff and pretended to slip into it. Climbing out she spluttered "I'm okay," to Dan who had flown over to see if she was alright. "Klutz," he muttered flying over to his position.

Smiling to herself she began to feel an unexpected burst of new found water power flow through her skin and blood streams like liquid ice.

Slowly she raised her bow and arrow, seeing Dan begin to prepare to dodge, she waited till she was about to burst with the force of the waters power then let loose her arrow while whispering "arctic arrow".

She watched as the arrow began to glow a bright ice blue and speed toward Dan faster then she had ever seen any of her arrows go.

The glowing arrow pierced into Dan's chest who hadn't been able to move quick enough. He fell to the ground in front of her. "Nice," he whispered holding his chest.

"Thanks," she whispered getting down on her knees and placing her hand on his hand on his chest. Smiling gently she took his hand away and with her other hand gently pressed it into his chest muttering a few choice words a faint blue light emanating from underneath them. Standing up she helped Dan stager to his feet.

"I don't get why Kristina likes Max's healing better I've been healed by him before and his is okay and all but yours is so gentle." He said regaining his energy and standing up by himself. Grace shrugged. "I think it's because everyone has slightly different preferences. Light is closer to fire, than ice or water, maybe his healing agrees better with her element."

"Well whatever it is I think we have had enough for now...well at least I have." He added when he noticed me seeming completely full of energy. "Okay," she said confused at how he seemed so exhausted.

As they were walking back through the halls of Kadic we ran into Sissy who was trying to look through the peep hole in Ulrich and Odd's door. _"Think she's trying to see Ulrich naked?" _She asked Dan. _"Maybe," _he chuckled. Carefully they made our way around her so she wouldn't here them and made there way to Grace's dorm.

Once inside they let go of each others hands and sat back down on the bed to do the rest of there homework.

Suddenly Dan reached over and poked Grace in the shoulder quickly returning to his work innocently when she jumped. Glaring at him she returned the poke except harder and in the rib cage.

Jumping he laughed as he began to tickle her. "Stop!" She cried squirming to try and get away. But Dan reached over and grabbed her around the waist pulling her closer tickling her side the whole time.

Only when she was gasping for breath did he stop tickling though he kept his hand around her waist holding her close. "Don't...ever...do...that...again" she whispered in short gasps not realizing how close they were. "I promise" he whispered back in her ear.

Startled by how close his voice was she looked down at his hand that was wrapped protectively around her. As she gazed at his hand he pulled her even closer so that there bodies were touching.

"Dan... we can't be like this" She said looking up at him. "Why not?" He asked her in a whisper smiling as she blushed. "Because...I...I don't know," Grace stuttered smiling. "You don't know?" Dan teased tickling her again.

As she tried to squirm away from him her charm necklace fell out from its hiding place in her shirt. After Dan had stopped tickling her she shakily lifted the charm necklace and started to tuck it into her shirt again but Dan grabbed her hand.

"Grace, what was your charm before?" He asked quietly. "A blue stone dragon," she whispered confused by the urgency in his voice. "Grace...you are a level higher!" He said his voice growing louder with ever word.

Grabbing her necklace back Grace stared at it, the once blue dragon was now a silver heart with a blue stone dragon tail wrapped around it. "Oh my god!" she screeched happily jumping up and down slightly in Dan's arms.

"Thank you!" She shrieked looking at him and she threw her arms around his neck. They sat there for a few seconds before Grace pulled away.

"I'm sorry," she said embarrassed for her sudden burst of affection. "Why are you sorry?" He asked a little disappointed that she had let go. "For hugging you," she said looking up at him. "But...why...I mean...didn't it feel...well right?" He asked blushing "Well...yes...I...I mean... no…I can't," she started to stutter uncontrollably. "You're so cute when you stutter like that," Dan said pulling her into another hug.

Forcing herself to relax Grace laid her head cautiously against his chest, while he rested his chin on her head. After a little while Dan felt her breathing steady and he glanced down to see that she had fallen asleep. Smiling he gently kissed her forehead then leaned back up against the wall and drifted off to sleep.

**Aww the fluff, and I must say that Grace has come a long way since I first read her fluff (it was horrible shutter). And so you know Grace wrote the second half of this chapter not me she disserves some credit. So review my loyal readers and you will not be disappointed. **

**purplepaw**


	11. Why?

**Heh sorry about the long wait and truthfully I don't have any excuse I've had this does for a long time I even have like the next 3 or 4 chapters done. So anyway I don't think I have anything to say… yep nothing… wait I rememberd something. I know normally people in Kristina's condition wouldn't be let out for a couple of days but hmmmmm how about her powers helped boost the healing process… yah I think that'll work**

**Disclaimer: what part of I don't own code Lyoko don't you understand**

**Claimer: ha but I do own… Kristina (ha I own myself), Grace, Dan, Max, and the plot you can't have them unless I give you permission but I'll tell you right now you aren't getting your paws on my plot**

Max woke early the next morning, even for a Tuesday morning. Breakfast hadn't even started yet. Today he had gotten a pass to go and pick up Kristina because the morning classes had been canceled due to a staff meeting.

Quickly he turned off his alarm so was not to wake Dan up, but when he looked over at his companions bed he saw that it was empty. Smiling he assumed correctly the his friend had spent the night with Grace.

Jumping out of bed he quickly put his clothes on and ran out the door carful to lock the door behind him.

As he walked towards the hospital he kept remembering things from the past especially the first time they met, it happened to be on Lyoko. Kristina was extremely weary of them at first not used to seeing other humans for the face that she had never been outside of Lyoko before.

He had worked really hard to get her to trust him and a couple of years later he totally shatters what he worked so hard to achieve. Shaking his head to get rid of the thoughts he ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit he had.

Yah he was nervous, though he wasn't sure why, it wasn't like this was his first time ever seeing Kristina. Heck, he had known this girl for 3 or 4 years.

Nearing the hospital he slowed till he was at a complete stop a few feet from the door. 'This is it," he said then pushed his way threw the great glass doors.

Slowly he walked up to the front desk with as much confidence as he could and asked. "Which room is Kristina Ebony's?" He said in a much higher pitched voice then he would have liked.

"What is your relation to her?" The lady said in a bored tone without looking up.

"I'm her boyfriend...I mean boy who is a friend...of...her...yah," Max stammered blushing a bright pink.

"Room # 113," the lady said handing him a card with the number on it then went back to typing on her computer.

"Thanks," he muttered as he turned and headed down the hall.

Once he came to the door labeled 113 he stopped, carefully he reached out and grasped the door handle then before his nerves told him to do otherwise he pushed the door and entered.

Looking around he saw Kristina lying in her bed she appeared to be asleep. She was sleeping on her side with her back facing him. This didn't surprise him it was still early and Kristina had never been a morning person, she had always been a creature of the night, 9:00 was too early for her.

As he walked up to her bed she started to twist and turn slightly. Soon she started to mumble incoherently, and her heart rate monitor started to beep at a quicker pace.

Charm waves of fright and pain were streaming off of her like water runs from a faucet.

Quickly he walked around to the other side of the bed and felt her forehead. It was cold and sweaty.

'She must be having a nightmare' he thought then he gently began to shake her. She woke with a start breathing heavily and looked around.

When she saw him she jumped in fright and gasped "you...you tried to" then her voice gave out and her eyes glistened with tears that threatened to fall..

Unsure of what to do he sat down next to her and gently rubbed her back. She sat up at his touch and subcaunciously leaned her head on his chest gasping for breath and trying to control her heart rate which had sky rocketed to the point where Max wouldn't have been surprised if a nurse came running through the door.

"What's the matter?" He asked once she had quieted down.

"Nothing...I'm sorry," she said sitting up and looking down in embarrassment, she didn't usually cry about things.

"Come on...it has to be something," he pestered putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I was having a nightmare... that's all." she said looking at his hand on her shoulder questionably.

"Come on...you can tell me...you used to tell me everything," he said squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.

"I...I was just...reliving the time when you tried to...tried to... to... you know," she muttered tears leaking silently out of her eyes.

Startled Max stood took his hand away from her shoulder and walked over to look out the window his hands jammed into his pockets.

"I thought you had forgotten that," he said after a few minutes. "How could I...one of my best friends and former boyfriend tried to kill me," she stated in surprise.

"It...it wasn't totally my idea," he said turning around.

"Totally?" She snorted looking up at him in disgust.

"Look...I was angry about...the fight...and Xana took advantage of me," he said sitting down next to her.

"Right," she said rolling her eyes and moving away from him.

"Look...why do you have to be so self centered?...Why can't you try to look from my point of view?" He snapped.

"I have!" She said whirling around to look at him. "No matter how many times we fought...none of them gave you a reasonable reason to kill me!" She screeched.

"But...but" Max spluttered unable to come up with a good come back.

"Look...Max if you really are my friend...or want to be my friend...you would admit that what you tried to do was wrong, really wrong...not try to find a good reason to have done it." Kristina said trying to be calm, and failing miserable.

After a few moments Max looked up to meet her gaze. "What will it take for you to forgive me?" He asked though it sounded more like a plead.

"You could start with earning the rest of my trust back," Kristina informed him her arms crossed over her bandaged chest.

"How do I go about doing that?" He asked scooting closer to her. Kristina tensed and moved away from him.

When she was satisfied with the amount of space between them she replied, "you're smart you can figure it out."

He scooted closer to her and lay his hand on hers. She winced at his touch and pulled away. Max sighed, "why do you keep pulling away?" He questioned.

"One you aren't exactly my favorite person in the world, and two you have a girlfriend back in the states correct?" She pointed out bluntly.

"Yes well...I haven't seen her in a really long time," he said taking her hand in his and with the other stroking her hair, something that he knew usually calmed her down.

"Max...stop...I don't want anyone else to feel the way you made me when I found out you had dumped me for someone else, even cheated on me a bit..." she said sliding out of his grasp and gazing at him sternly.

Max looked at her questionably, "how did you find out about that?"

"One your excuse for breaking up with me was incredibly stupid, and two Grace is horrible at keeping things from me." She stated bluntly.

"I'm sorry, but it wasn't really cheating on you..." Max was cut off by Kristina.

"You asked her out before you broke up with me, if she hadn't forced you to break up with me before she said yes then you would have been." She pointed out bluntly.

Max ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. This was true, and they both knew it.

"Look let's just get back to school, I want you to come with me to check on certain someones," Max said adding the last part mischievously.

Kristina gave him a questioning look. "What?" She asked in a slightly irradiated tone.

"You'll see," Max answered as he pressed the button to call the nurse.

Once the nurse had come she took out the IV port, removed the bandages, put her shirt back on, and replaced her shorts with her jeans. Max being shoved outside the curtain that wound around the bed when she was changing.

A few minutes later the curtain was removed to reveal kristina slipping her feet into her shoes.

"Now the doctor told me that crutches weren't necessary, you might be a little sore because you pulled a couple of muscles but crutches would just slow the healing." The nurse informed them. Kristina groaned but she didn't argue.

"I had to call the school to make sure that this young man was actually given the privilege of bringing you back but everything is alright," the nurse said happily. The tone kinda annoyed Kristina she seemed a little to happy bubbly in her opinion.

She smiled at them and then told them just to sign out at the front desk then they could be on their way. They nodded signaling that they understood and the nurse left.

"Let's go I can't handle a moment more of this place." Kristina said flatly.

"I agree and I haven't been here nearly as long as you have." Max managed to agree with Kristina on something.

They checked her out of the hospital and soon the two were walking back to school.

Kristina took in a deep breath and turned to Max, "Max...what does Aly have that I don't?" She asked boldly looking at him with a much dignity as she could muster.

Sighing Max looked at her an said "do we really have to talk about this?"

"Yes...it has been bugging me ever since you sent me the e-mail," she said exasperated.

"Well... I'll just name all the things that she had that I liked...she is smart...pretty...she has attitude...she's nice...she's funny...and she likes me back." Max stated the list while Kristina listened with growing annoyance.

Once he finished she then asked in a deadly quiet voice, "and what do I have that you liked."

"Well...you're...everything she is...plus you can relate to things that she never could," Max said shrugging his shoulders as if he said this to a girl everyday.

"Max...then why?" She asked quietly.

"Because...you had been acting...different...and I was afraid that you didn't like me anymore," he said looking away from her pleading eyes.

"Max...stop lying to yourself and me...what is the real reason as to why you dumped me?" She said trying to be as calm as she could at this stressful moment of time.

"I don't know...we had been having fights a lot more then usual and..." he started then stopped as he stared into her blue eyes. "I don't know...maybe...I was just afraid of you," he said laughing slightly.

"Why would you be afraid of me?" She asked raising her eyebrow.

"I don't know...I'm just making excuses...I knew the minute I hit send on that e-mail that...that I would regret it." He whispered moving closer to her.

"Max...stop...you still are dating Aly..." she whispered preparing to strike him across the face if he seriously tried to kiss her.

"But she has been acting strange lately...I think she is cheating on me," he said smiling leaning in again.

"You seem happy about that," Kristina said dodging away from him again and starting to walk away.

"Well...I'm not that happy about it...but it means you and me might be...you know... able to get back together?" He said shyly.

"What the...what or who put that idea in your head," she said startled turning on him.

"Well...I thought...that since you have been talking about how bad you felt when I broke up with you that you were hinting that you wanted to get back to together," he said still looking at the ground.

"Uh, no sorry that wasn't my intention, not in the slightest. If you even want a sliver of a chance of getting me back you are going to have to work a lot harder than that," she said walking up to face him again.

"Alright," he said then grabbed her shoulders and began to kiss her. After a split second Kristina pushed him away her hands burning with her fire. "You haven't even come close to earning that, your lucky I just got out of the hospital or you might be there yourself." she spat glaring at him as his smile turned into a frown then began to walk again.

The rest of the way to school they walked in silence, Max occasionally trying to put his arm around Kristina or hold her hand but she would just smack him or speed up. By the time they got to school Max had given up with the trying to get close to her and was just following her his head down in dejection.

As they walked into the building Max remembered something. "Hey... Kristina ...I want to show you something," he said grabbing her arm and running toward her dorm. Once outside the door he stopped and looked at her.

"Yes Max...this is my dorm...I don't have amnesia," she said looking at him like he was crazy.

"No...let me see the key," he said holding out his hand. Handing him the key Max put it in the lock and turned it. Holding his hand up to his mouth signaling for her to be quiet he pushed the door open silently on its greased hinges.

Quietly they both walked in and looked around, the first thing they saw was Dan lying on Grace's bed with her wrapped protectively in his arms. They both had to cover each others mouth to stifle the others laughter.

Kristina removed Max's hand from her mouth as she removed hers from his. "Awww so cute," she cooed.

"Think they got together?" Max asked quietly as they approached the sleeping pair.

"Nah, she would have made up an excuse," Kristina told him.

"You got a camera?' Max asked.

Kristina smiled mischievously and answered, "yah, and it's digital." Soon after she said this Tiggy came trotting over with the camera in her mouth.

"Who's that?" Max asked.

"That's Tiggy my kitten, if you tell anyone you will wake up the next morning very confused and in Cuba." Kristina warned. Max noticed that she was serious and nodded.

Picking up the camera she wiped the kitten drool from it and smiling turned it on. "Say cheese," she muttered before pushing down on the button. A clash of horror crossed her mind as she realized he had forgotten to turn off the flash.

A bright light lit up the room and Dan began to stir and soon his eyes fluttered open.

Kristina smacked her forehead. "Smart Kristina," Max commented. Dan blinked a few times before he noticed Max ans Kristina standing in the room.

"Why is Kristina in our dorm? And when did she get back from the hospital?" Dan asked.

"You aren't in your dorm Dan, and I just picked her up because everyone else was too busy to come with me." Max stated trying to hide his amusement but failing miserably. Dan started at the two looking very confuse for a moment until he felt something move against his chest.

Dan looked down to see Grace cuddled up against him. A bright red blush fell across his cheeks.

Dan was lying on his side with his back next to the wall with Grace next to him on her back. He had his right arm wrapped around her shoulder while the other was wrapped around her waist. Looking up he blushed even redder when he saw them both burst into laughter.

"Shut up...your going to wake her up," he whispered fiercely.

"Nah...she has slept through fire alarms before," Kristina managed to say threw her laughter.

"What's going on?" Grace mumbled shifting not opening her eyes. They all stopped and looked down at her.

"Uh...this is going to get awkward...want to get some breakfast Kristina?" Max said heading for the door.

"Sure," Kristina said quickly walking towards the door. Just before the door closed Dan saw another flash of the camera and heard some laughter as the door snapped shut.

"Are they gone?" Grace asked blinking slowly.

"Yes," Dan said.

"Who took the picture?" She asked sitting up half way and slowly rubbing her eyes.

"Kristina did," Dan answered yawning.

"Did you sleep in here last night?" Grace asked looking down at him still lying next to her.

"Yah... that okay?" He asked cautiously not sure of what her response would be.

"I suppose," she said with a mock sigh.

Smiling Dan poked her in the side before pulling her down so she was lying next to him again her head lying next to his.

"When does class start?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I think they start after lunch, and breakfast hasn't even ended yet we have plenty of time," Dan mumbled into her hair which he had started to stroke.

"We should get up...the others probably want to get together," Grace sighed sitting up again.

"Aw...but I was so comfy," Dan complained.

"Come on lazy...it's my dorm which means you have to do as I say," Grace said smacking him with the pillow.

"Cool...so if your in my dorm I'm in control?" Dan asked sitting up slowly.

"Within reasonable limits...but don't think is going to be a habit of us sleeping together, as wrong as that sounds." Grace said walking across the room to get her hair brush.

"Why not?" Dan asked playfully.

"First of all because we aren't going out, second we only did that because you were to lazy to get up, third of all it's totally against school rules, and fourth... never mind," she said starting to tug at the snarls.

"Come on admit that you liked it," Dan said getting up and picking up his binder from the floor and placing it with the rest of his stuff.

"Fine...I liked it...a lot...but I just don't think we should do it again," she said brushing harder and harder taking out her frustration on her already frizzy hair.

"If you liked it why not?" Dan asked again walking over to her and taking the brush out of her hands to prevent further damage.

"I don't know," she admitted sighing and trying to get the brush back. Holding the brush out of her reach he walked around to behind her and began to work at the snarls.

"That's reason isn't good enough" he said after a few minutes.

"Well...I honestly don't think we should," Grace said as Dan put the brush down so she could put up her hair.

"Please," Dan begged leading her to the bed and sitting down next to her.

"Why do you want this so badly?" She asked looking at him.

"Because...I liked being so close to you...it felt good...besides you even said you liked it," He said stating the obvious.

"Maybe," she said standing up and heading towards her dresser she side tracked and headed towards the door. Opening it she said, "you have to go out while I change."

"Why...I won't look," he said sitting back down on the bed.

"I'll let you back in when I'm done," she said.

"Fine," Dan muttered head down like a dog and walked slowly out the door.

Sighing Grace went over and changed into her regular clothes then gathered her things for class and got them ready before setting them aside and heading out the door.

Looking around she didn't see Dan anywhere so assuming he had gone to change she headed towards his and Max's dorm.

When Grace got there she found Dan with his ear up against the door, when he saw her he motioned for her to be quiet then for her to come over. Quietly she walked over and put her ear to he door as well.

**When are Grace and Dan going to get together? Ha only I know… ok Grace knows too. Ok now here is the part where you click the 'go' button and complain about how I didn't post fast enough unless you want to praise me in which case I will bask in all the wonderful praise.**

**Oh one more thing… for all you Sasha fans don't worry all I have to do is a bit of copying and pasting and I'll have the last chapter posted in nothing flat.**

**purpletail**


	12. Scars of the Past

1**Hiya! Its wonderful me back again and this time I have an excuse for the lateness of this chapter. You see I've been writing a chunk of this story separately, at first I figured it would only be three of four pages but it grew rapidly until when it was finished it was 13 pages (which is really ironic for the passage) so that's what I was spending so much time on. Just so you know this story will eventually have a very good reason for being rated T, in fact its kinda bordering in M in a way. But I'm not going to change it, I'll just put up warnings because it's not really a big read if you don't read those parts. That's all I have to say other than this story is going to be massive I haven't even hit the half way point yet... though I have to admit I lost track of the story line a long time ago.**

**Disclaimer: I'm sure you area ll going to gasp in shock when I tell you that I don't own code lyoko**

"Come on...something has to have happened between them last night," Max was saying pacing the floor while Kristina sat cross-legged on his bed.

"Why do you seem so unhappy about that?" She asked looking at him confused.

Even with the earlier events she was feeling quite at ease around him. This surprised her a tad, but she shrugged it off

"Because...I told Dan not to have anything happen between them," Max said stopping and holding his head in his hands.

"Why?" Kristina asked, "you know he would anyways because of how much he likes her," she added.

"I know, but I just didn't want them to get together because then I would feel obligated to be friends with you guys," he said slowly hoping she wouldn't take it offensively.

"But why did you come back then?" She asked trying not to take his words to heart.

"Because...I was drawn to Xana, and I brought Dan only because he might be of some use. It was only on the way here when he wouldn't shut up about how much he was looking forward to seeing Grace that I thought that it wasn't such a good idea to bring him." Max answered sitting down next to her.

"But...why didn't you want to be friends with us?" Kristina persisted.

"Because I was angry, I don't know why. I just blamed you for all my suffering, for being under Xana's control. Just because I wanted to blame someone and you were the first person I had thought of and you are so easy to blame for it all." Max said turning away from her.

"And do you still feel that way?" She asked cautiously.

"No...I don't think I will ever be able to get mad at you ever again," He said sitting down next to her and putting his arm around her waist which she reluctantly leaned into afer her failed attempt to squirm away.

Max noticed that she didn't use her fire powers against him to get out of his grasp. _'Ok it's progress' _he though to himself

After a few minutes Kristina asked, "Max what would you do if you had to tell someone something but...you were afraid that they would totally resent you for it?"

"I would try to explain it," he said looking at her in confusion. Kristina took in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.

"I am the reason you are under Xana's control," she said her voice becoming grim and serious.

"How?" Max asked curiously.

"One day Xana told me that he needed someone else under his control and that he needed me to transfer some of my virus to that other person. I knew I wouldn't have had a choice so I asked which one of us. He wouldn't tell me. He only told me to let him gain partially control me the next time he tried. I agreed.

"The next day he took control of me but only slightly so I still looked like my normal self that was the only time that you ever saw me under his power.

"We were still together making it sometime before... you know... it was the day before in fact. Anyway you kissed me, Xana used this time to transfer some of my virus to you.

"The reason I didn't remember the event was probably because of his hold on me that has on several occasions affected my memory of what ever happened during that time period. You know how he like to toy with ones memories. The discovery of your virus must have brought back the memories for whatever reason.

"And to tell you the truth now that I remember, I let him transfer it... you see this couldn't have happened unless I willed it to and I was slightly mad at you at the time and you know how I can get when I'm mad... I have quite the temper.

"What I'm trying to say is... I'm sorry." She said finishing as a single silent tear trickling down her cheek.

Max just sat there unsure of what to do. After a few minutes Kristina got up and started towards the door. Pausing just before she opened the door as if she wanted to say something but she said nothing and just walked out.

-----------Electricity------------

Grace and Dan scurried away from the door and waited a little ways down the hall so they could still see what happened.

Kristina stepped out of Max's and Dan's dorm shutting it softly behind her. Dan could feel charm waves of what was mostly confusion mixed with slight pain and annoyance coming from the girl.

Kristina stepped across the hall and slid down the wall so she was sitting on the cold tiled floor.

Kristina wiped the tear from her cheek with her sleeve. Her eyes now were clouded with confusion and sorrow. She didn't like him... no she wouldn't like him. He could try and try but she had locked up her heart so no guy could ever weasel his was in again.

A tear trickled down her face again and this time landed with a soft splash on the tile floor she had been staring at.

Feeling the charm waves of her two observers she looked up to them. "I knew you were outside the door," she whispered softly.

"What happened?" Grace questioned. Heaving herself to her feet Kristina got up again. "He knows about me giving him the virus," Kristina spoke to Grace. With that Kristina walked down the hall toward the stairs that lead to the girls floor.

Dan heard a click from his dorm room door and grabbing Grace's hand pulled her around the corner and out of sight.

------------ Air------------

Max replayed what she just said a few times in his head before it finally sank in. Jumping up he ran out the door just in time to see Kristina turn around the corner on one end of the hall and Dan and Grace run around the other corner hand in hand apparently not wanting to be seen.

Sighing Max started off after Kristina catching up with her just before she went into her room a floor below his.

"Kristina wait up," Max's voice rang down the hall. He knew she heard him because she stopped as she placed her hand in her doorhandle though she didn't turn around to face him.

He slowed to a walk as he drew closer. He stopped when he was standing three feet behind her.

"What do you want?" Kristina half snapped.

"You've been as understanding as one could hope after... what happened... and I think that if you can forgive me for something as big as that I should be able to forgive you for something that you went out of your way to fix." He said hoping that she would at least turn around.

"Who said I fully forgave you?" Kristina asked without turning around before completing her task of finding her way back into her doom.

When the door closed behind her Max knew that he had screwed up. Of course he knew that from the beginning but this time he knew that it was possibly, unfixable

Sighing Max walked back up to his dorm knowing that pestering her would just push her farther out of reach than she already was. Kristina was one who needed her space, lots of it, and she would let you know when you were invading it.

------------Water------------

As Grace and Dan went around the corner Dan heard Max open the door hurriedly sigh then take off running in the opposite direction.

Sighing in relief he turned to see Grace sitting down on the floor leaning up against the wall, with her head back. Sitting down next to her he put his arm around her trying to comfort her.

"What's the matter?" He asked taking her hand in his.

"It's just...Kristina has never told anyone but me the whole thing about giving Max the virus since she realized what happened. Now just when I thought we were all comfortable with each other and we could go back to the way thing were before...but no...she had to go and tell Max the whole story." Grace said lying her head on Dan's shoulder.

"I'm sure Max won't take it personally," Dan said holding her closely then added, "but no matter what happens nothing will ever be the same."

"What do you mean?" Grace asked in a steady voice taking her head off his shoulder and looking strait ahead hands folded together. "Come on...you know" Dan said in a hurt voice.

"I don't know what your talking about," she said blankly looking away again.

"Alright I'll show you," Dan said taking her hand in his and pulling her into his lap. Smiling she leaned her head on his shoulder while he put his cheek on her head.

They sat in a happy silence for a few minutes both of them lost in there own thoughts. After a few minutes Dan looked down at Grace about to say something but then when she looked up at him he stopped.

"Grace...what color are your eyes?" He asked cautiously.

"Hazel," Grace answered confused.

"Then why are they solid brown?" He questioned.

"What do you mean?" She said nervously.

"Look for yourself," he said getting up and helping her up. Grace walked to the girls bathroom only a few feet away. When she looked in the mirror she looked particularly closely at her eyes but they were a bright hazel color just like usual. Laughing quietly she glanced at the door where Dan was standing outside.

'_He was just seeing things,' _she thought looking again just incase. As she was looking she began to think about what had been happening between the two of them. _'He's so different' _she thought sitting down with her back against the wall of the bathroom looking at the door.

'_When me and Kristina left for the France me and him just ignored each other and now. I never expected him to like me back. I'm so confused...I really like him...but...I'm just so scared that if me and him go out then it will turn out like it did with Kristina and Max.' _

Sighing she got up from her sitting place and looked in the mirror once more thinking about how much she wanted Dan to like her. When she looked in the mirror and saw her eyes once more she gasped.

They were shining a dark pink. Slowly she blinked, still pink, but then just as she was looking at them they darkened till they were brown. "I have my tail powers," she whispered to herself grinning happily causing her eyes to become yellow.

Quickly she ran out the door only to bump into Dan. "Sorry," she said blushing.

"It's okay...hey, what's with your eyes?" Dan asked smiling.

"Uh...what color are they?" She questioned cautiously.

"Pink... now," he said raising an eyebrow.

"Shit," she whispered looking away blushing.

"What?" He asked looking at her thoroughly confused.

"Um...well I have my tail powers...only now my eyes change color instead of my tail tip," Grace said looking up at him with white eyes.

"And what does white mean?" He asked.

"Embarrassed," she said meekly looking at him.

"What are you embarrassed about?" He asked her.

"The pink," she said smiling slightly.

"Okay...um...what's pink mean?" He asked continuing with the questions.

"Uh...love," she said then bolted, running towards her's and Kristina's dorm.

"Hey wait!" Dan cried out following her reaching her just as the door shut. Banging on the door he shouted, "come out...I need to talk to you."

"What's going on?" Kristina asked startled by Grace's sudden appearance.

"I have my tail powers...but now my eyes are changing colors instead of my tail..." Grace said locking the door.

"But...why is Dan banging at the door?" Kristina asked then added, "and why are you locking it on him?"

"Because he found out about the powers and it just so happened that when I told him my eyes were pink...do you know what that means?" Grace said whirling round to land on her unmade bed.

"Uh yah it means Gracie in lurve," Kristina said grinning madly drawing out the word lurve just to annoy Grace.

"Shut it," she snapped from her laying place in bed.

"Alright I'm going to answer that door, his banging it is getting REALLY annoying," Kristina said before Grace could say no.

Just as she was about to turn the door knob Grace lunged at her knock her to the floor. They both landed on the floor screaming at each other. Kristina pushed Grace off of her causing her to slam into the door.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Dan shouted from outside, but he got no answer.

Whirling on Kristina Grace glared at her, her eyes a smoldering red color. "Don't let him in," she hissed.

"Why not?" Kristina taunted earning her a well deserved smack. Soon the were pulling each others hair and scratching each other till the both collapsed on their own beds red and hurting. Grace slightly burned in places, and Kristina soaking wet and freezing.

Gasping for breath Kristina said, "alright you win...but for your sake...I don't think Dan would want to ask you out once he sees you." Grinning at Grace who's hair was hanging in her face and she had a long white scratch running from between her eyes to her chin.

"Gee thanks," she said wearily walking over to Kristina's bed and placing her hand on Kristina's chest instantly healing her, then she healed herself.

"Can I come in now?" Dan asked from outside in a very annoyed voice. "No...just leave me alone for now," Grace called to him hoping he wouldn't ask questions.

They heard a sigh then foot steps receding into the distance. After they had faded Kristina asked, "why won't you talk to him?"

"I need time to think," Grace said her eyes turning back to an earthy brown sitting on the bed wishing she had let Dan in.

"Stop it...I can tell what your feeling," Kristina said grimly. "You wish he were here right now to hold you...right?" She asked.

All she got for an answer was a slight nod. Kristina sighed and ran her fingers trough her already messy hair. Her friend had it bad and she was fighting herself internally about it... this wouldn't end well.

"Well I'm going to breakfast I think they're open this late on days like this...you coming?" She asked knowing very well that she had no intention of going to the cafeteria.

"No...I...I want to be alone," Grace answered.

"Alright," Kristina said heading out the door leaving Grace to sulk over her misfortune.

**The next couple of chapters will manly revolve around the four dragons because this long line of events have to happen for one reason or another so don't think that I've just given up on the original CL character, they'll have their time. Has anyone noticed that I like to beat up Kristina? If you haven't yet you will be come severely aware of that fact before to long. Normally I would ask for a review b ut I shouldn't even have to ask at this point now should it?**

**Purpletail**


	13. Sweet and Sour

1**Sorry about the long wait, it was just pure laziness because I didn't want to bring it down from my computer to the downstairs one, so I'm finally doing it, I also plan to update a few other long over due stories.**

**Disclaimer: I only write these in every chapter because I have nothing better to do at the moment**

Once Kristina closed the door behind her, her face split into a grin. Running down the hall the opposite direction from the cafeteria she headed towards Dan and Max's room.

Reaching the door she heard Dan sit down on his bed his emotions going haywire. Knocking twice she waited, she heard a sigh and Dan opened the door. "What?" He asked in an annoyed voice.

"I really think you should go talk to Grace even if she doesn't want to. Here's the key and you better give it back," she said ignoring his tries to interrupt.

Shoving the silver object into his hand she ran off towards lunch hoping Dan wouldn't tell Grace that she sent him. After he watched Kristina run off Dan looked down at the shiny key as if it were a poisonous snake, then slowly he closed his fingers around it and headed towards Grace's dorm.

At the door he stopped and put his ear to it. Listening intently he heard Grace sigh and the creak of her bed as she lay down on it. Taking a deep breath he knocked.

"What...who is it?" He heard her snap at the door.

"Me...Dan," he said gulping hoping she would let him in.

"What don't you get about go away?" She sighed obviously deep in thought.

"Kristina told me to come and talk to you...she gave me a key so not letting me in isn't going to help," Dan said trying to keep the smirk off his face.

When he didn't get an answer he slid the key into its hole and walked in. Grace lay on her bed starring at the ceiling not even looking to see Dan.

"Why won't you talk to me?" Dan asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Because..." Grace started but then blushed and turned her head away from him.

"Please, stop turning away from me," Dan pleaded sitting down on the bed next to her and turning her head with his finger. Her eyes locked with his and turned a light shade of pink almost instantly.

Smiling softly he said, "your eyes are pink again."

"That's why I won't talk to you," she answered blushing even more and turning away again.

"Come on...why are your eyes pink?" He asked as if he hadn't remembered what the pink meant.

"Are you really that stupid? I told you a little while ago," She asked turning to look at him again with a smile on her face.

"No, I know why, but I just want to here you say it again," he said smiling and laying down next to her, their faces just inches apart.

"Why?" She asked in a teasing voice.

"Because if you say it then I'll tell you something," he said smiling as well.

"What would that something be?" She asked getting curious.

"You tell me first," he said brushing a strand of hair out of her face.

"What were you going to tell me?" She asked curiosity thick in her voice.

Sighing Dan rolled his eyes and said, "alright." Instead of a strait answer he leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then moving down he kissed her gently on the lips, which to his surprise she returned.

Breaking apart from her for a second he whispered "I love you."

Grace hesitated a moment. "I love you too," she answered smiling then kissed him again harder this time, which he gladly returned.

They broke apart from lack of oxygen after a few minutes then they just lay there fingers tangled together. After a few minutes Dan turned to look at Grace who was starring at the ceiling as if in a trance.

"Hey," he whispered getting her attention.

"What?" she asked looking at him. Gently he leaned in and kissed her again, she wrapped her arms around him. Grace slightly deepened the kiss while he pulled her body closer by wrapping his arms around her waist.

After about a minute Grace pulled away gasping for breath, "what was that for?" she asked him her eyes turning white.

"An erg, I've had it for a while but, anyways now that you have no excuse will you go out with me?" He asked smiling broadly.

"Hmm why should I?" Grace asked in mock thought.

"Because you like me, and you think I'm hot," Dan said flinching when she smacked him.

"Alright I suppose," she said giving him a soft kiss on the cheek then she snugged into the crook of his neck smiling happily.

Grinning madly Dan kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes, enjoying the closeness of their bodies.

A slight shifting movement awoke Dan around half an hour later, glancing down he saw Grace curled up against his chest fast asleep. Smiling again he remember the events of the past hour. He chuckled slightly then glanced at the clock, it read 11:30. Classes started at 1.

Stretching the best he could without waking Grace he smiled again as an idea came to him. Leaning down he kissed her on the lips after a few seconds he felt her begin to kiss him back.

Getting mischievous he deepened the kiss then gently he licked her lips asking for entrance which only earned him a hard smack across the face and Grace glaring at him.

"What?" He asked innocently as she glared at him.

"Not so fast ok," she said softening her look but only slightly.

"Sorry," he said giving her puppy eyes that worked wonders on her.

"It's okay… just don't do it again, anytime soon," she said giving him a quick hug then stood up from the bed stretching.

Dan took that opportunity to start to tickle her again causing her to fall right back into his lap which made her unable to move away from him.

"Come on...Dan stop!" She screeched till he finally let her go and she rolled onto the bed gasping for breath.

"You really like doing that don't you?" She asked sitting up again and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Yup," he said grinning and putting his arm around her waist.

-----------Air------------

Kristina slowed to a walk and turned a corner headed for the stairs to the girls floor.

"What are you doing on this floor?" She heard a boys voice come from behind her. Kristina froze and abruptly turned around.

"Do I know you?" She asked looking up at the boy.

"My name's Theo what's yours? I don't think I've ever seen you around here," Theo said looking her up and down. His eyes seemed to linger the longest on her chest.

"Kristina, and I would appreciate it of you would stop checking me out," Kristina said in an annoyed tone.

Theo stopped immediately, "so are you new?" He asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"Thought so... what were you doing up here anyway?" He questioned.

"Would you believe me if I said I got lost?" She asked hopefully.

"Not really," he answered leaning up against the cream colored wall.

"Didn't think so, you don't look like that type that would," Kristina said slightly disappointed.

"Kristina what are you doing up here? Where did Dan go? I know you know," Kristina instantly recognized the voice, Max. "Oh, hi Theo," he said as soon as he noticed the boy.

"Hi Max," Kristina greeted half heartedly.

"You know each other?" Theo questioned looking between the two.

"Yah," Kristina grumbled.

"He your boyfriend?" Theo asked Kristina.

"No," she snapped, appalled by the question.

"Ok, sorry I asked," Theo stated taken aback by Kristina's hostility.

"It's not your fault it a little bit of a touchy subject for me," Kristina smiled at Theo.

"Bad experience?" Theo asked.

"Getting a little nosey aren't we?" Kristina questioned.

"Just wondering," Theo said surprised by the hostility of her voice.

"Yes well I would love to stay and chat but I have to go stop Dan from doing something inappropriate with Grace." Kristina said flatly. Before turning around she cast a glare at Max, he seemed unfazed.

Max raised an eyebrow, "how do you know they are doing anything at all?"

Kristina laughed slightly and turned around, "please this is Dan we are talking about." With that she turned around and continued on her way down to the girls dorm.

Max and Theo watched as she disappeared behind the double doors.

"So what did you do to her?" Theo asked turning to Max. _'How could he do anything to a girl like her?' _Max caught a glimpse of Theo's open mind.

"She never said it had anything to do with me, besides, you like her and you've only met her once?" Max said it as a question.

Theo opened his mouth to say something but abruptly closed it. "No," he said strongly.

A smirk spread across Max's face. "Don't deny it, though I wouldn't get your hopes up you aren't her type and trust me I know." Max said confidently.

"Just wait and see," Theo remarked.

------------Earth------------

Kristina opened the door to her room to find the two sleeping in each others arms. She stopped in the doorway leaning against it's frame work.

Her thoughts raced through her head. They lingered on the couple sleeping soundly in front of her.

The couple seemed perfect together. Of course they always had been that way. Dan always knew what was worrying the girl and was there for her.

Max and Kristina knew it was coming eventually. As much as it pleased her to see her best friend happy she couldn't fight off the feeling of dread, but whether that it was only because of them or if her own experiences were making her think that way she couldn't tell.

... nope I can't think of anything to type...still nothing... oh I know I'll put a bit of the next chapter here 'cuz I got nothing better to do.

Purpletail

**All the way back to school Kristina was silent. _'It's wrong to even consider it!' _half of her was screaming, but she did the best she could to ignore it. "You okay...you're awfully quiet," Theo asked as they entered the building and headed towards the girls dorms. **

**Turning to look at him Kristina's heart shouted _'no...leave me the hell alone...get lost...I hate you...the only one I love is...' _while her brain said _'...where did that come from, I'm fine...I like Theo a lot more then I did that jerk Max.'_ she wanted to go with her heart but naturally her brain won the short two second war that all Theo could see of was her hesitation. **


	14. The Book

**Ok this iswhat I was trying to get at, the discovery of………………. Now we can continue with the main plot because ……………… is a major part of it.**

**Disclaimer: 'Stop it...you look too happy and when you look happy your face gets a blissful look on and when your face gets a blissful look on you look very pretty and when you look very pretty I concentrate on your lips and when I concentrate on your lips I just want to kiss you.' Took that one from Grace…she doesn't know it yet**

Jeremie sat in the courtyard typing away at his laptop. Aelita sat next to him watching the strings of code line the screen.

"I think it's a wonderful idea to do this for Kristina," Aelita spoke.

"What exactly are you doing?" Aelita looked up at Odd's voice.

"Hi Odd," Aelita greeted.

"Guys, guys you will never believe this!" Grace was running toward the trio as fast as she could Dan following behind her.

"What is it, a Xana attack?" Odd asked calmly.

Grace stopped to catch her breath before answering, "it could have been because I just saw Theo kiss Kristina."

"What about Theo?" Yumi and Ulrich were approaching the steadily growing group of kids.

"I just watched him kiss Kristina and it didn't look like she was all that surprised by it either," Grace stated some of the words running into others.

"Theo, really?" Ulrich asked interested.

"I saw it too," Dan said, he was a lot more calm than his girlfriend.

"I didn't even know she was home," Odd put in.

"Max brought her home this morning," Dan explained.

"Why didn't he come and ask one of us to come as well?" Odd asked.

Grace spoke, "something about a special pass."

"Can't image that went too well," Ulrich said then adding. "I would be surprised if the two of them came home without any claw marks from the other."

"I'm done!" a cheer came from Jeremie interrupting the conversation.

"What is?" Dan asked.

"Jeremie's program that he's was working on," Aelita explained.

"What does it do exactly?" Odd asked.

Jeremie pushed up his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "You see it's a program I designed to help control Xana's power over Kristina until we can try and find a solution to her virus problem." he explained.

"You can do that?" Yumi asked surprised.

"Sure it just needs Kristina's extra power to work which normally she should have no problem supplying," Jeremie added.

"So we won't have to deal with her Xana attacks anymore?" Grace asked hopefully.

"As long as she can supply the power she should be fine," Jeremie said.

"Wow wait till I tell her she's going to be thrilled!" Grace was praticly jumping up and down at the news.

"All we have to do is go to the factory after school and upload it to her code," Aelita explained, "then she should have more power over Xana's attacks."

After Aelita finished her sentence the bell for lunch rang.

"Come on let's go eat lunch," Odd immediately grabbed his bag and headed toward the lunch room.

"Does he ever stop eating?" Dan asked.

Yumi shook her head and laughed slightly, "nope."

Grace paused and looked behind them, "has anyone seen Max or Kristina?" she asked.

Everyone stopped and looked over their shoulders at the girl. "No, come to think of it I haven't seen either one of them since I bumped into Kristina on her way to breakfast." Yumi said.

"She's probably went back to her room after breakfast I can imagine that she's a little wiped out," Jeremie opted.

Grace bit her lower lip and slowly nodded though she wasn't convinced and followed her friends.

------------Fire------------

Kristina landed on the ground her talons gripping the earth. Looking around she found that this wasn't the factory. It was some overgrown house in the middle of the forest.

Letting herself transform back to her human self she walked up to the gate. Running her fingers over the small brass plate she read 'Hermitage.' Where ever she was it sure was giving off a strong Xana energy signature.

Suddenly feeling a little dizzy she gripped the fence to keep her balance. Breathing a little heavier than she should have been she pushed herself off the fence and stood on her own two feet. She looked up at the house suddenly she felt like she had been here before like a memory that had started to clear.

Now thoroughly intrigued she pushed open the gate. It squeaked out in protest as she pushed it forward. She stepped through the front yard as if she was trying to remember the place. Getting to the door she opened it silently and slipped in to the dark room.

"It's too dark," she murmured to herself. With a snap of her fingers she created a small flame that would give off enough light to illuminate the room. She appeared to be in a living room. One wall was covered with a book shelf. Curious Kristina walked up to the bookshelf and ran her hand across the dusty spins.

There were all kinds of books. Most of them fairly old and all of them dust covered.

When she ran her fingers over one of the books she paused. The book's spine was blank. She paused and blinked, this wasn't right. As her fingers lingered over the book she noticed that it was feeding her powers, making them become sharper as well as leaving her fingertips with a warm sensation.

Intrigued she pulled the book from the shelf. As she dusted it off she noticed that the cover of the book was blank as well. She went to open the book when she noticed that it was bound by a lock and a strange one at that. It didn't have any key hole, only a flat piece of metal connected to the cover and back of the book by two straps of red leather.

"No lock can keep me out," she murmured a grin spreading across her face. Fire came in handy a lot. Especially when picking locks, all you needed was the right temperature.

She rubbed a few of her fingers together creating the heat. She placed her finger on the metal lock and pressed down gently hoping to melt the lock. As her finger came in contact with the shiny metal it seemed to be sucking up the heat. Stopping, she ran another finger over the metal. It wasn't even warm.

Kristina blinked in confusion and furrowed her brow. How could it be resisting her heat. This wasn't normal.

She sat down on the dusty floor, it creaked slightly in protest. Kristina lay the book in her lap and brushed a few stray hairs away from her face.

The next logical step was to try and burn the straps. Though this was risky if she didn't do it just right the whole book would go up in flames that would cause uncorrectable damage.

Once again creating the heat in her finger tips she lightly touched one of the straps. Just as before it resented any heat. Kristina bit her lower lip now she was even more determined to open the book..

Kristina stared at the cover of the book for what seemed like hours. Trying to figure out how to open it.

Just as she was about to give up something appeared on the cover.

_Dragons of Lyoko_

A key was obviously what she needed, a special key. She didn't know what kind of key but she figured that if she couldn't figure it out Jeremie could.

Holding the book in her dragon tail that she formed she started walking toward the school. She knew she was going to miss a good portion of the first class and maybe the second but she wasn't sure.

Kristina walked through the forest her mind focused on topics she would have rather forgotten. Most of them had to do with either Max or Theo, and the occasional forbidding thought about Dan and Grace.

Kristina stopped when she realized where her feet had taken her. She was at the clearing where she had been earlier. The stream ran clear and calm, and forest around her was mostly silent except for the occasional chirping bird.

She placed the book carefully on a rock nearby the stream and let her tail melt back into her flesh. She kicked off her shoes and sitting on yet another rather large gray rock let her feet dangle into the water.

Why did all these awful things always happen to her? Why did she always end up on the receiving end of all Xana's dirty work? As her thoughts raced she must have lost track of time because the next thing she knew the sun had started to set and the sky had turned different shades of pinks and red. In fact she was kind of startled to realize that she had spent half of the day thinking of nothing and everything in particular.

She rose to her feet and kicked the droplets of water from them. Stretching she picked up the dark red book and holding it under her arm she started to walk back to school. As she walked through the forest she scuffed her feet in the thin layer of fallen leaves from the early hibernators. The leaves colors had yet to reach their full height but they were still dazzling.

Smiling slightly she was brought out of her dreaming by her overly active stomach, which had started to ache considerably due to its lack of food. Groaning she quickened her pace hoping to catch the tail end of dinner.

------------Ice------------

Slipping into the building undetected she headed towards hers and Grace's room to drop off the book. Crossing her fingers that she wouldn't meet anyone she slid along the walls of the school peeking around corners till she reached their room. Just as she was about to slip the key into the hole the door swung open and Grace ran out bumping into Kristina getting thrown back.

Kristina scrambled up and grabbed the book.

"Where have you been?!" Grace demanded, "and why on earth were you kissing Theo?!"

Kristina glared at her. "I'm not dating him if that's what you are thinking," she snapped sliding the book behind her and away from view.

"Then why were you what?" a new voice came down the hall and Kristina knew at once who it was. Max. That boy had incredible timing.

"She was caught kissing Theo earlier," Grace explained.

"Why were you kissing him?" Max asked.

"He... he... he just caught me by surprise," Kristina lied. She knew he didn't buy it, he always knew when she was lying because she wouldn't look him in the eye.

"What's with the book?" he asked. Kristina bit her lower lip and took a few steps backwards. She didn't want to tell him where she found it or he would ask things like why she was there and why she had skipped all of her classes, though he probably knew about her absences.

Kristina hesitated before answering, "I found it, and you know I like to read." she lied quickly gripping the book to her chest.

Max glanced behind her to see Jeremie and Aelita walking down the hallway, with a really big smile on there face. "Hey Kristina, remember when I said that I was going to make a program? Well it's done and I need you to come to the factory tomorrow so I can activate it." Jeremie said.

"What kind of program?" Kristina asked forgetting the book for a moment.

"You'll have to se for yourself, but trust me you'll love it," Aelita said obviously excited.

"You know what it is Aelita?" Max asked.

Aelita nodded, "I helped Jeremie design it."

Kristina smiled and let the hand holding the book drop to the side. "I'm sure it will be fantastic but I really would like to go to bed now I've... had a busy day." She half lied, she did have a busy day, she just didn't say doing what.

"Miss Ebony, you skipped all of your classes and I couldn't find you on campus, you are in big trouble!" Jim's voice boomed down the hallway. Kristina cringed.

"Didn't the nurse tell you? I was on bed rest, I had an upset stomach and spent most of my time in the bathroom," she lied quickly. This was one of the things she had a knack for, coming up with excuses quickly.

"I checked with the nurse and no such thing happened," Jim boomed continuing to advance on the teen.

"What?! I know when I'm sick Jim, go check again I'm sure that you'll find that I'm right," Kristina countered raising her voice dangerously at the teacher.

"Don't you raise your voice to me young lady, but I will check the records again, though I'm positive that I was right." Jim turned around and walked down the hall. "Your roomed until I get back, no more wandering for you." he called over his shoulder wagging his finger in the air.

"Good lie," Max commented after Jim had wandered out of the hallway. "What did you do? Alter the records?"

"Yah, before I came here, now come on Grace I want to show you this book, it's..."

"The Clawbook! That's been lost from our family for years! It was supposed to be passed down with the generations of light dragons but I can't believe you found it!" Max grabbed the book from her hands after she showed it to Grace.

"The Clawbook?" Kristina asked.

**Ah the Clawbook, I really did type one up, tell me if you want me to post it, it might help now that things are going to get even more confusing for you poor readers, sorry but I got really into this fic and so I made maybe 1 or 2 many little details that are crucial to the story, but a little hard to remember. So for your sake I have the Clawbook. This thing will hold everything from Kristina's past (once its explained in the story), to abilities.**

**purpletail**


	15. Looks Can be Deceiving

**I have great news! I just got out for winter vacation! I have till Jan. 3 to be lazy and write as much stuff as I want! -jumps for joy- that along with the ending I've been playing around with should get me on a steady track for this story.**

**Disclaimer: Chocolate should be a legalized drug**

Kristina felt her back slam against the tree with great force. The impact caused her to fall forward onto her stomach before she found the strength to even attempt to get up. Lifting herself to her legs shakily she felt a scaly hand take her arm and help support her. Bearing her fangs she wrenched her arm away. "I've had worse," she snapped as she leaned against the old tree trunk to stop her legs from shaking.

"I think that we might want to stop now, you are taking quite a beating and it'll take me forever to heal all your bruises and minor cuts at this rate." Max said standing in front of her.

He, like the red dragon before him was in full dragon form. The two had been practicing with Kristina's new powers in combat. For a while they had been evenly matched but for the last couple of minutes she had been receiving most of the blows. "No I'll get Grace to do it," Kristina said as she let her dragon traits melt back into her skin.

As she did so she felt the resistance to the injuries fail and blood start to flow from her arms and the break in her leg start to send sharp pain up through her body.

She fell to the grassy ground and held her leg. "You sure?" Max asked wincing at her state.

Kristina bit her lower lip and answered reluctantly "just heal me enough to get me to the dorms."

Max kneeled down by her and let his hands fall over the various cuts healing them with a warm touch. "There that will get you back without suspicion as long as you don't put weight on your left leg."

"Alright," she mumbled as she got to her feet with much difficulty. She tested her foot to see how much weight could be put on it. When a sharp pain ran up her leg she realized that it was practically useless right now.

As she contemplated how she would get back to the dorms with a broken leg she felt Max's now human arm wrap around her waist as he placed her arm over his shoulders.

When she gave him a challenging glare he spoke up, "how else are you going to get there?" he asked before she could snap a protest.

When she didn't make a response he added "Ulrich and Odd's dorm is closest from this direction so we'll go there."

A figure watched the two dragons leave the cliff with a fixed glace. _'Good they're fighting this will make things easier.' _ She thought to herself.

When the two were out of sight she expertly dropped to the ground. Her two-tone purple zip-up sneakers hit the grassy ground with a soft thud. The girl straightened up and brushed her soft brown hair out of her chocolate brown eyes. She dusted off the seat of her dark navy blue jeans. She hated spying on people when it involved sitting in trees. After she dusted of her pants she flicked off a bug from her purple sleeveless top which had a black hood and a shiny silver zipper that ran diagonally from her right shoulder to her left hip.

The girl sighed and ran her fingers over the silver dagger pendent that hung from a silver chain around her neck. This was what she was set out to do, as unpleasant a job as it would seem to be it was in her blood. She had killed the girl's parents so how hard could these two be, they weren't even fully trained yet. True she would be going against the code to be attacking dragons that were of use to her master. She smiled, not a happy one, one with a more evil purpose. She was never one to follow rules.

------------Electricity------------

"I find it amazing how quickly you get yourself into these situations, you just got out of the hospital yesterday." Max said in a semi-teasing voice.

"Shut it," Kristina snapped curtly.

"You need to learn to control that temper, seeing you like this I'm not sure how you survived with only Grace's healing powers." He said looking down at her briefly before opening the side door to the building.

"Well it wasn't easy I'll tell you that," she grumbled under her breath.

Max shook his head and continued down the hall Odd and Ulrich's dorm was only a few doors down.

With each step Kristina found herself leaning more and more into Max's support. She also found herself more and more aware that Max was tightening his grip around her waist. Kristina was snapped out of her thoughts as Max knocked on the dorm door.

"Who is it?" a muffled call came from inside the room. It sounded more like Odd's voice to Kristina.

"Max and an injured Kristina," Max answered.

Kristina looked up as the door opened and her gaze met Odd's. Worry flashed across them at the sight of Kristina clinging to Max for support.

"Can she walk?" Odd asked Max as his eyes fell to her leg that was lifted off of the ground.

"_She_ can speak for herself, but no I can't," Kristina snapped. She was a little irritated by the fact that she was being supported by Max.

"She's a little snappy right now don't take it personally," Max assured as he practically carried Kristina to Ulrich's bed.

"I thought you were just training" Ulrich exclaimed when he looked down at the girl that was resting on his bed.

"Combat training can get a little hectic when two dragons are the same level," Max said as he rested against the wall his cell phone in his hand. He was calling Dan, Grace was no doubt with him.

But Kristina wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were locked on the leather bound book lying on the desk only a few feet from her, the same book that had been found earlier that day.

It was a handbook for the dragons. It explained all the twists to being a dragon. You wouldn't believe all the different things the book held. It had everything from the way elements were passed down, to the different things needed for training a dragon that has just gained the ability to use his or her form outside of lyoko.

A soft knocking ended the short silence. At that minute a feeling of danger welled up in the pit of Kristina's stomach. Max looked up "must be them," he murmured.

When the door opened Kristina snapped her head up to meet the gaze of... someone she had never met. The girl had a purple top and black pants as well as purple shoes. "Who are you?" she asked rather rudely.

"Tyra, what are you doing here?" Odd asked slightly surprised.

"You said for me to come by, remember?" she asked her eyes not settling on one thing in the room for long.

Odd slapped his forehead. "I totally forgot, I'm sorry Tyra.."

"She never answered my question," Kristina crossed her arms over her chest.

Tyra turned and examined the girl. Her thin lips formed a smile. "Tyra Montez, and you are?"

"Kristina Ebony," Kristina responded cooly. Anyone in the room could tell that the two didn't go well together.

"What grade ninth?" Tyra asked coyly.

Kristina glared at her and her hands began to heat up. "Tenth," she growled her canine teeth starting to grow a bit.

"Calm down Kristina," Max warned.

"You aren't my mother!" she snapped.

"You don't have a mother!" he barked back. "So I'm the closest thing you've got!" the whole room fell silent.

Tyra was just looking stunned, but on the inside she was jumping for joy, they were mad at each other and she knew that they would be easy to take down if they the fought. She cleared her head of the thoughts and played along as if she didn't know.

"Oh you're an orphan, I'm so sorry," she said trying to be sympathetic.

Kristina grunted dismissing the apology and glared at Max for a split second before painfully getting to her feet. She grinded her teeth in pain and walked out of the room. Opening the door handle she warmed it up so that it was hot to the touch. She slammed it behind her and walked down the hallway.

Odd looked at Max silently saying 'you screwed up big time.' "It's not as if we're dating so I shouldn't have to do anything... oh I better go after her." He went to open the door but recoiled when he touched the handle. "What the heck!" he screeched.

Odd smirked "heh, you deserved it. Hey you know what I'll take Tyra here around campus while you catch up with her." Odd put his arm over Tyra's shoulders. Tyra blushed and shoved his hand off. "We'll be unpacking my room if you need us, I've already seen the campus." she confirmed pulling Odd into the hallway.

"You go ahead I was planning on having Yumi over anyway." Ulrich said looking at his feet and blushing.

"Later," Max said absent mindedly running out of the room (having to wait a moment before he could open the door again).

-----------Fire-------------

"Kristina!" he shouted after her as she hobbled down the hall, her shoulders shaking with sobs that she tried in vain to hold back. The only reaction he got saying that she heard him was that she quickened her hindered pace and turned the corner out of site. Swearing quietly at his stupidity Max ran after her, catching her just as she was about to attempt the stairs downward.

"Get off me Max!" she shouted at him as he grabbed her arm pulling her away from the stairs she was curtain to fall down.

"No, not until you listen to me," he snapped at her hauling her back to his and Dan's room. Finally he managed to drag her into his room, her struggling the whole time. Throwing her on the bed he pinned her down with his arms on hers. Trying to ignore the awkward position they were in he forced her to look into his eyes.

"What?" she hissed at him drenching every syllable with loathing.

"I'm sorry," he said struggling with the unfamiliar words his mouth was forming, he rarely ever apologized for things he said, but for Kristina he was willing to make an exception.

"Didn't think it was possible for you to say that," she muttered at him before adding, "but still...apology not excepted, you just told a girl I don't know my biggest secret, and to top things off you shouted it so anyone could have heard."

"Look...I didn't mean to ok? It just kinda came out," Max stuttered grinding his teeth at how desperate he sounded.

"A likely excuse," Kristina answered rolling her eyes.

Trying one more desperate attempt to get her to believe him he said quietly. "You know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you...I can't...it just doesn't feel right," smiling to himself he saw with satisfaction that he had hit something there because her angry eyes softened slightly and she seemed to melt under him.

"It doesn't seem too hard," she said trying to gain back her hopelessly lost anger.

"It only was because I was frustrated you won't believe how bad I felt afterwards, worse then that burn you gave me," he said getting off her and sitting up allowing her to sit next to him.

"Oh...yah...sorry," she mumbled at her sitting next to him letting their shoulders brush. "Here let me see it," she said forgetting all about the fight for a moment and taking his hand in hers.

Glancing at the palm she saw it start to throb an angry ruby red, feeling him flinch away she realized at what she was doing and let go of his hand. Blushing she stood and head to the door, "hey...what about my apology?" Max asked catching her around the waist.

"Still not accepted," Kristina growled dangerously at him angry at being tricked into forgetting about the fight.

"Why?" he murmured turning her around in his arms so they were uncomfortably close.

"Because...you're a lying, cheating, bitch," she managed to gasp not being able to tear her bright blue eyes away from his darker ones.

"You don't mean that," he whispered at her, he could feel her heart pulse quicken against his chest.

"You're lying right now," she muttered in an injured voice.

"I'm sorry," he said suddenly realizing the truth in her words and pushing himself from her, the heat he had felt before leaving him in a sudden icy wave.

"Me too," she whispered back tears pricking in the corners of her eyes, just before she turned to go he leaned forward and gently brushed her cheek with his lips, breathing in her familiar scent.

"I may be lying...but I don't want it to be a lie," he breathed in her ear as he pulled away and turned his back on her as she walked out. As she walked away the tingle in her cheek faded as if washed away by the crystal tear drops that slide down her face, in little rivulets of salty anguish.

**Tyra was an idea I had for the longest time and her exact roll in the story just clicked into my head a while ago so I plopped her in the story so I could put the little plan of hers to action. I didn't write the last section Grace did so give her the credit, also if you're waiting for Jeremie, Yumi, Aelita and all them to have more of a roll in the plot you'll want to make sure you check out the next few chapters because they'll be coming to play a lot more. I also can tell you that this story will be really long because there'll be one big plot then right after that one another, and a third one that all play into each other. I have my work cut out for me….**

**purpletail**


	16. Purple Eyes

**Eep! How long has it been?!?!? Over two months…. I'm sorry guys I went on vacation and I was sick with all this make up work then I had finals (ok really we only had one but) then I was just plain lazy for about a week…so this should make up for it and I have the next chapter already typed. **

It was late November and all the leaves had fallen from the trees, but it wasn't cold enough for snow yet. It had been a month since Kristina had been running down the hallway, tears staining her cheeks.

Things had been wacky lately. Kristina had been juggling finals, both Odd's training and her own, her growing mistrust of Tyra who had practically become part of the group, and helping out with Yumi's and Ulrich's pre-training flaws.

Yep, Yumi and Ulrich had recently reached level 10 and things are a mess to say the least.

Ulrich had been revealed as holder of the wind element and tends to create little tornados all over the classroom if he nods off. Those are hard to explain to a teacher when the classroom doesn't have the needs to create little minnie tornados.

Yumi, well we have an... interesting predicament with Yumi, she has light as her element. This makes her prone to glowing like a light bulb during lunch. On top of that she's entitled as Max's apprentice. Not to mention that Kristina's fire element has the totally opposite alignment so she wasn't even supposed to have him as a mentor at all. That was what they were discussing at the moment.

"Kristina why are you getting so worked up over all this?" Max asked confusion etched deeply on his face. The whole gang was sitting in Kristina and Grace's room after having just found out about Ulrich and Yumi's elements, and dealing with all the questions the teachers were asking not to mention the students.

Grace sat on her bed with Dan sitting behind her his legs splayed apart so she could sit between them and lean back on his chest. Yumi sat cross-legged on the floor at the side of Grace's bed with Ulrich's head resting in her lap as she fiddled with his long-ish brunette hair, while Aelita sat daintily at the head of Grace's bed her legs pulled up to her chest watching Jeremie who was busily typing away on his laptop on the floor next to Kristina's bed, deep in thought. Odd was sitting in the desk chair twirling around completely unaware of the fight that was going on, a blissful dreamy look in his eyes as he stared at the ceiling a stupid grin pasted on his lips. Max was sitting on the edge of Kristina's bed his arms open in a sign of confusion at Kristina who was cross legged in front of her door away from the others.

"Because..." she started desperately trying to for a reasonable argument.

"I think that we should bend the rules just this once, I mean how much harm could it do if he finishes training me and then trains Yumi," Kristina had been trying to get her point across for the longest time now.

"It takes years for dragons to complete their training and Yumi can't wait that long," Dan pointed out.

"Well couldn't she get her training from... well Grace is next in line so she should be her mentor," Kristina said.

"The book said that she'll get her training done faster and more efficiently if she has a mentor with the same element, we need that efficiency" Jeremie argued without looking up from his laptop still typing god knows what.

"Jeremie is right Kristina, we'll just wait with your training a bit while Yumi get caught up to speed then you can have your mentor back, besides we can't have her glowing like this for much longer," Aelita reasoned still not quite sure why Kristina was so worked up over this.

"Yah people will start to think she's radioactive or something," Ulrich commented a light laughter tainting his words.

Kristina groaned in frustration and leant back against her door staring at the ceiling her eyes glazing over. She quickly blinked away the tears threatening to fall. Kristina could feel everyone starting at her and returned her gaze to them. Quickly she looked down avoiding their gazes and started to pet the cat that had curled up in her lap moments earlier.

"Well," Dan started, "I still think in the long run it would help if we snapped Kristina's bond with Max, replace her with Yumi and take things from there. If we leave the bond there it'll slow the process of Yumi's levels by a long shot."

"What do you think Kristina?" Max asked.

"You don't care do you?" Kristina said raising her face slowly to Max's burning hurt and anger deep in her eyes scorching him with their strong glare. "You don't care if our bond is cut...you don't care what happens to me...all you care about is Yumi's fucking training and all the Lyoko shit." She added her voice rising into a screech.

"Kristina..." Max said obvious shock in his voice as he stood and walked towards her. It took a lot to make Kristina swear like that bad he wasn't sure what triggered it. A single glance from Kristina made him stop in his tracks at the amount of anguish and pain in her crystal orbs. "I don't want to break it, I spoke to fast. I wasn't thinking right...I'm sorry," Max murmured his heart lurching at the look she gave him, full of melancholy. He hadn't seen her this bad off in a long time

"No, you meant it, you don't care about me anymore...I don't think you ever did," Kristina shot back at him her voice cracking with emotion.

"I do care..." Max said before he realized what he was saying. It made no difference all he got as a reaction to his outburst of affectionate words was a snort.

"Your just covering up," Kristina defended herself lamely trying to hide her astonishment at Max's response. Silence greeted her comment as Max stared at her, shock and pain in his eyes,

"I do," was all he could say trying to convince her, his voice quiet and unsure as he formed the words he had vowed never to say again, "I do care...I have and always will."

"Prove it," Kristina said without missing a beat, her cold eyes emotionless as he said the words she had wanted to hear but now wished he had never uttered. Spluttering Max turned to look at Dan, his eyes pleading for him to tell him what he would say. All he got for an answer was Dan looking away, hinting that it wasn't his place. "See...you can't," Kristina's voice sounded from her place by the door.

"What do you want me to say?" Max asked whirling on her, annoyed that she didn't believe him.

"I don't know!" she said exasperated, "some explanation as to why you have tried to kill me twice then claim to still care about me would be nice! Is it just me or do those two things not match quite well?" Kristina asked anger flaring up again so that she leapt to her feet, causing Tiggy to streak across the floor and hide, under her bed. Without waiting for a response she added, "You know what? I don't fucking care anymore! You can go ahead and train Yumi, continue with Lyoko training, but leave me the fuck out of it!" as she finished she wrenched open the door and slammed it shut behind her, claw markings etched into the frame where she gripped it.

A thump followed the reverberating echo of the slamming door. Turning to the source of the noise Max found Odd on the floor looking around blankly. "Wait?...What just happened?" he asked a confused look at Max who was struggling with frustration induced tears.

"You guys have the strangest relationship I have ever seen," Dan said to Max from his seat while rolling his eyes at Odd and trying to lighten the mood in the room all at the same time. With a half hearted grin in Dan's direction Max groaned and threw himself on the bed looking up at the ceiling as if it held the answer to all his problems.

"Something tells me we should leave you alone." Dan said scooting out from behind Grace and standing up, stretching. Walking out the door, Dan was closely followed by Odd, Aelita and the others not included in the argument. With one last sorrowful look at Max, Grace followed the others, her heart unusually heavy after seeing her friends fighting with their emotions, and duty to serve their world.

Once she was out and the door had closed with a soft click she turned to find Dan standing right behind her. "Hey...what's the matter?" he asked resting his forehead on hers.

"It doesn't bother you in the least that our friends are fighting, not only about Lyoko but with their emotions?" she asked shocked.

"Oh, they'll get over it," Dan said wrapping his arms around her shoulders in a carefree manner.

"Yah well, your little input didn't help matters any," she snapped at him pulling away, angry at how he had made it look like Kristina's feelings for Max didn't matter.

"Is it bad that I was trying to help?" he asked raising an eyebrow at her, surprised at how she had pushed him away.

"Well you didn't have to put it so plainly." she answered turning towards him, anger flaring in her eyes, "in fact...it wasn't your place at all to say anything...they could have handled it a lot better if you hadn't rushed him to the wrong conclusion." she added, glaring defiantly at him.

Hurt flashed across his eyes, but only for a moment before it was replaced with anger matching hers. "I said it because I was trying to help my best friend, while you were just sitting there watching them tear the heads off each other." Dan shot back watching her take a step back at the level of his voice. He had never yelled at her before.

"They were tearing each others heads off because of what you said...so I thought it wouldn't help at all to state my opinion," she said matching his voice level while trying to keep hers under control.

"Well apparently we have a difference in what we think is best for our friends sakes!" Dan said ignoring the pain she had in her now blue eyes.

"Obviously you think that stating your opinion is more important then trying to prevent our friends from hurting each other's feeling more...some friend you are!" she said her blue yes flashing red with anger now taking over her sadness.

"Not true! You think that watching them hurt each other without trying to fix their problem is better...and your calling me a bad friend!" he snapped then added. "I just want what is best for Max, he is my best friend and he has helped me a lot!"

"So I noticed from your snide comment about breaking the bond between Max and Kristina. You know that is one of the most important things she has and the only thing that has never changed for her...but do you care! No! you just want Max to have a more compatible apprentice for him to teach!" Grace said furiously.

"And what you were doing was the best for both of them, not helping Max make his decision?" Dan asked sarcastically rolling his eyes.

"Yes, by me not causing more trouble between them I was helping Max and Kristina, by letting _them_ make the decision and work things out she would have been more level headed if he hadn't rushed to agree with_ your _statement!"

"What I think is that you were just trying to keep quiet so that Max would get confused and blame me afterwards for not helping."

"What the hell? When did you come into this?" Grace asked shocked at his sudden switch of the fight.

"I know you care more about your friendship with Kristina then our relationship," Dan said hurt edging his voice.

"I care about you both equally you know that," she answered bewildered at his sudden coldness, "what makes you think that I don't?" she asked

"For one because your always hanging out with her. Second because your sticking up for her right now instead of preventing a fight with me!" he shouted at her his voice growing louder and louder.

"I'm sorry...I don't mean too," she said her voice suddenly small compared to his as she shrank away from his words.

"No your not! If you were you would stop being friends with her!" Dan shouted his voice as loud as it could go before he could control his mouth.

Silence followed his statement as Dan stood, shaking with anger as Grace just stared at him, a pained look in her orange eyes. The air around them crackled with emotion as their eyes locked orange to brown, each one filled with emotion for the other. "Grace...I," Dan started walking towards her stretching out his arms to touch her but she flinched back.

"Dan..." she whispered hurt in her voice. "Dan... please don't ask me to do that," she added tears pooling in the corners of her now purple eyes, purple, the color of a broken heart. Without waiting for his response she turned and ran down the hall, leaving Dan standing there watching the girl he loved walk away from him.

He didn't try to stop her.

**Originally this wasn't gonna' happen but grace got a hold of the chapter and wrote most of it so….but it doesn't matter in fact it fits the plot better then the story would have otherwise… funny how things like that happen isn't it? **

**purpletail**


	17. The Huntress

**Ok two things. One, for all you people who like action feast to your hearts content. Two, what you guys are reading is more or less my rough draft which is why you can see so many mistakes, sorry about that. I do go over it but not really with the fine toothed comb like I should. On the bright side when this story is done I will be going over it and smoothing down bumps in the plot and such. That will be all for now.**

**Disclaimer: Beware of attack lobsters!**

Ulrich sat on his bed concentrating hard. He was trying out his new tracking ability and was finding out that it was harder than it looked. "She left campus, I'm not sure where but she feels kinda far away."

"Yah she wouldn't have stayed within easy reach," Aelita agreed after thinking about it. "Should we go talk to her?" She questioned her face coated with worry.

Yumi shook her head, "if the few months I've known Kristina has taught me anything, its that you don't go bugging her right after an explosion like that... unless you plan on losing a few of your fingers. Give her about 15 min."

"Where's Grace?" Jeremie asked beginning to wonder about her absence.

---------------Fire--------------

Kristina lashed out at the tree for the umpteenth time in the past five minutes. Her claws sunk into the bark leaving scorch marks aplenty. Her anguish had quickly become excess rage, which she was taking out on the tree.

She pulled out her claws, the wood still smoking from the heat of them, and flexed her hand. Breathing heavily she let her dragon traits melt back into her body. She just stood there for a moment, leaning one handed against the rage damaged tree.

Running her fingers through her hair she leaned her back against the tree and slid along its trunk landing with a soft thud on the ground. '_What's wrong with me? I'm blowing up over something this small... must be hormones.'_

Seeing the sun setting along the tree line she figured she should get up and go back to school. Stumbling to get to her feet Kristina caught her balance up against the tree. She reasoned she lad lent t much energy out in her tree beating. "I really have to learn to control my temper," she murmured to herself as she got a steadier footing.

--------------------Darkness-----------------------

Tyra sat in her room gazing at her computer monitor. Nothing much had happened and the email she was looking at told her that her boss was wondering how long it was taking her to gather information about France's legal system so he could better his plan for the take over of France.

She sighed and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. She really didn't feel like working today. She had a lot of projects to do and... _SLAM!_ A slamming of a door jerked her thought away. The slam was followed shortly by a small thump and several pounding footsteps.

Her dagger necklace warmed against her neck, a sign of weakness in her target. Sighing she flicked her wrist. With a hiss smoke filtered up from the floor and snaked its way up her body. _'I guess I'll have to go to work anyway, darn' _she grunted at the thought.

Soon the smoke withered away as if it was afraid of something and reviled a new look for Tyra. It was black, totally black. Tight black pants and a tight black t-shirt that reviled most of her midriff, which she personally didn't approve of but she didn't have any choice in the matter.

Around her waist though, was the real show. Daggers and knives of every kind all hung from a belt that lay loosely around her hips, even a few throwing stars adorned the mix. It was made of a durable fabric and it could withstand all the blades of her various possessions.

Her hair was tied back in a loose braid now, to keep it out of her eyes. It was longer now too, it helped to disguise her just as much as a mask would. She really did prefer her hair back like this; she just never had time to do it herself.

--------------------Light-------------------

After standing for a few minuets to make sure her balance was ok she started to walk into the forest. She felt a bit strange, and not in a good way. Something was watching her, she knew it. Being trapped in Lyoko for a good portion of your life did wonders on your senses and Kristina had always been able to tell when someone was watching her.

She hoped it was really nothing for she would be low on her fire powers for a good 15 minutes after that string of attacks she pulled on that tree and she needed to restore her energy

A twig snapped.

Kristina whirled around to see Yumi behind her. The half dragon let out a breath. "It's only you, I thought...oh never mind," she relaxed and walked up to her friend.

"You're feeling better I see," Yumi said almost cautiously.

Kristina's state of relief retreated and was replaced by a gloomy one. "No, not really, but I let all my anger out if that's what your wondering."

"Yah I saw the tree," Yumi said giving Kristina look telling her she shouldn't have done it. Kristina gave her a look back, one Yumi had learned to mean it-could-have-been-you-instead. "Yah, well, I'm sorry for everything," she murmured.

"It's not your fault, it was bound to happen, things are just uneasy for me right n..." Kristina stopped short and looked around. In a flash she was in her dragon form. "Hold still, we aren't the only ones here." she murmured softly.

The branches of a nearby tree creaked. Kristina turned around to face the noise. Kristina saw a glint of silver and felt the air move around her face. A split second later something sharp cut through both of her wing membranes. The knives had just the right amount of force and pinned Kristina to a nearby tree. Kristina gasped in pain and let out a surprised shriek.

"_Kristina!"_ Grace screamed into her friend's mind.

"_Stay back! This is dangerous! Get the others! I think it's a hunter it knew to hit me in the wings!"_ Kristina screamed back mentally.

The injured dragon strained to reach the knives that pinned her back but found that as soon as she tried to reach she would pull on her other wing. "Yumi get out of here!" she hissed as quietly as she could.

Yumi seemed stunned for a moment but disobeyed Kristina's orders and ran to help her friend. "No!" Kristina cried out, too late, as Yumi reached for the first blade a figure dropped down from the tree above.

The human clad in black moved to quick to been seen clearly, though it was obviously a girl. It dropped straight in between the girls and swung her right arm out jabbing at Yumi. Yumi dogged backwards and reacting quickly gave a roundhouse kick. Yumi's foot made contact and slammed the person into the tree. The hunter who was apparently a huntress groaned and pushed off the tree as Yumi fell backwards from the backlash of the kick. Yumi fell to the ground stunned, that had never happened before

"Not so fast!" Kristina smirked and grabbed the back of the person's shirt and attempted to burn a hole in it. The material didn't catch fire; it seemed to absorb it as if it were coated in Dan's darkness.

"Never seen a huntress little girl?" the voice was cold and, strangely enough seemed vaguely familiar. The huntress drew out another dagger and swung backwards hitting Kristina in the arm.

Kristina's anger grew as the blood started to drip from her arm. She grabbed the huntress' arm and dug her claws in drawing blood. The huntress grunted in pain but with her other arm brought out a throwing star.

"Drop that!" Yumi had finally managed to get back to her feet and had launched herself at the huntress. She grabbed her around the neck wrenching her out of Krisitna's grasp and pulling her backwards.

The two fell to the ground. Yumi held fast around the girl's neck. They struggled, scrambling on the ground and fighting to keep the other down. Yumi, pinning the girl down with her forearm and legs, grabbed a knife out of the girl's belt. The huntress snapped her arm up jerking Yumi's arm. The bade fell from her hand and skimmed down her arm. Yumi breathed inward and withheld a scream, the blood from the cut dripping down her arm.

The hunter girl elbowed Yumi in the gut. Yumi groaned and stumbled backwards a little falling to the ground. The hunter was breathing heavy by now and was obviously angry. She picked up a bloody dagger, the one that had sliced Yumi's arm and threw it.

It sore through the air and fell a little short stabbing Yumi in the leg. Yumi groaned, fell backwards, and blacked out.

"Yumi!" Kristina screamed feeling fiercely angry at her incapability to help. She watched in horror as the huntress walked up to her and picked up one of the bloody blades that were scattered across the forest floor. Kristina grunted as the huntress threw the knife and it sunk deep into her shoulder. The blood poured out of the wound. Still weak from her earlier antics she could only pull out the blade. As her body put her powers to work as they did what little they could to slow the bleeding she felt her body be sapped out of all her strength.

Without the strength to even throw the dagger she let it drop to the ground. "Yumi hold on," she whispered as if the wounded girl could hear her as her eyes drooped. She felt a punch to her gut and another cut down her arm. She breathed inward harshly, hurting her already straining lungs as she did.

The last thing Kristina remembered as she fell forward ripping her wings, rather painfully, from the daggers and the tree was a cry of her name and a flash of blue, silver black, and purple. She hit the ground, soaked in her own blood, and lay still.

Grace whirled mid-flight and turned at the sound of her friend collapsing. "Kristina!" she screamed seeing the crimson liquid oozing in pools around her from various wounds.

Turning around just in time she saw Max attack the hunter with such force the girl was knocked over before she could even defend herself. Blood dripped from a deep cut on her left cheek as she lurched upward and stabbed his stomach.

Moaning in pain he fell blacked out completely, his place was soon taken by Odd as Grace pivoted and landed running toward Kristina summoning her healing power as she went. Her hands glowing blue she placed them on Kristina's chest and allowed some of her energy to flow to her friend as she healed the most serious wounds.

Something whistled across her cheek slicing it wide open making her twisting her neck painfully to see who had caused the pain. Not removing her hands from her friend's chest she glared menacingly at the hunter who had thrown off Odd causing him to land hard against a tree, passing out.

The huntress caught sight of Grace healing her prey, then Dan attacked. His eyes were cold and apathetic as he ripped at her chest, leaving bloody tatters across her naval. A pained smile flickered across her lips when she saw there was no fire in his eyes pushing him to fight, he was only risking his life because he felt he had to, he felt he owed it to someone. Her mind twisted around this new information as she dodged a badly aimed attack, hiding the satisfied smile she started badly throwing her daggers hoping he would lead her to the person whom he was fighting for.

As he advanced Dan noticed that her eyes seemed bored as she lazily flicked dagger after dagger at him. Unsure as to whether she was really paying attention or not he risked a glance in Grace's direction who was struggling now to heal the same wound which hadn't closed at all.

That was all she needed, an evil smile spread over her lips as she saw his eyes soften in the quick glance towards the girl he now obviously was fighting for. "Thank you," she muttered causing him to whip his head around straining his neck just in time to see the glint of a blade as it flipped threw the air.

Time seemed to freeze for the three people in the clearing still conscious. Dan watched in horror as the dagger neared Grace who had turned to see why the battle sounds had suddenly stopped letting the dagger aim perfectly at her vulnerable chest while the hunter just stood knowing her job would be done and the team would dissolve from this battle. A dull _thunk_ sounded and Grace's eyes flickered from full of fear to emptiness.

Blood welled up around the protruding handle of the dagger as she slumped down to the ground beside Kristina who's energy had returned in a small enough amount to blink her eyes open. Glancing around she saw Grace lying beside her, her face turning a dull red color as blood drenched the dirt underneath them. She tried to get to her feet but didn't make it past her hands and knees before falling over again and falling once more into blackness.

Suddenly a screech of anger sounded and Dan attacked a completely off guard hunter who fell backward fumbling with her last knife, dropping it into the dirt a few feet off from where she landed, Dan on top. His face inches from hers, as blood dripped down his fangs where one of her well aimed knives had punctured the side of his lips.

The taste of his blood dripping onto her mouth as she gasped for breath caused her to spit in anger, the rusty tang trickling down her throat. "That wasn't suppose to happen," she complained half to herself and half to him as he seethed over her, anger smoldering in his eyes.

"What did you expect?" he asked his words barely audible due to how tightly he was baring his teeth.

"You were supposed to go help her, that's what lovers do, they help each other," the hunter answered grunting as his talons began to dig into her already torn chest. Spitting in fury he leaned forward and raked his fangs down her collar bone leaving open jagged wounds the poured out blood. Stepping back he turned leaving her to bleed slowly and painfully.

Leaping into the air he landed heavily next to Grace and gently brushed his finger across her cheek, it was ice cold. Panicking he lifted her up and pulled her into his lap gently lying her head against his heaving chest. Cautiously he placed his lips against her forehead and rested them there for a few seconds before pulling away and leaning back against a tree to wait until Max came around from unconsciousness.

**Ok…see that little button that says go at the bottom of the page?**

**Yes? Ok good, now press it.**

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…

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**See that wasn't so hard was it :)**

**purpletail**


	18. Deadly Fall

**Eh…. See I'm not dead! I have come back to life so enjoy what I've typed up for you all.**

Kristina rolled over on her side, coughed for a second, and pushed herself onto her hands and knees. She fumbled a bit, almost falling over, before she felt someone steady her. She was to weak to fight back, so she didn't.

"I'm sorry," she croaked, her voice not quite back yet. "It was my fault, I caused this."

The person lay her on her back. "That's ok," he mumbled from above her, his face solemn. He didn't make eye contact. He just went about his healing not saying anything.

"You didn't deny it," she said, forcing a faint smile.

Max looked down at the bloodstained grass, "Grace is almost dead, the knife pierced her lung and I couldn't get it to knit back together right," he looked over at the others who had awoken before her. They had all gathered in a circle. Dan's muffled voice barely audible among the silent teens. "Your wings will have another scar to add to the collection now, I don't have the power to get rid of them."

She laughed faintly trying to lighten the mood. "That's ok I deserve it."

"No you don't, don't say that," he paused and started to massage her shoulder wound, pushing the healing into it. "Hunters attack any dragon they find, the question is how is there one left?"

She winced his hands pushing a little to hard on her shoulder, "I don't know, but she wasn't out to kill, she was just playing with us."

Max raised an eyebrow, "well if this is her weak attack I don't want to be around when she goes all out."

"Yah, but how'd she know?"

"Know what?"

"My wings, how they're permanently damaged."

"I don't know," he admitted, " rest here for a while though, I'll be back." Kristina closed her eyes and nodded.

"She'll be back, she hasn't finished her job," Kristina mumbled.

Max got to his feet. "I know, and that's why I have to train Yumi. Time is running short." and he walked back to the crowd of people.

"Max the bleeding started again." Ulrich called over. Max muttered something and ran over to the group.

Kristina groaned and poked her shoulder. It was numb. Not like she expected anything else. He always numbed what he worked on, just in case his healing gets a bit painful.

She rolled over on her side in attempt to see what was going on in the circle. She guess it wasn't anything good for Yumi was clutching Ulrich's arm to, what looked like, a painful extent.

Her heart sank, knowing she was the cause of her friends pain, if she was even conscious to feel the pain. As she lay there, limp, she felt her wings start to tingle. She didn't bother to investigate, it was probably just the numbness wearing off.

Then the whispering started. _My child, come back, the darkness awaits. _Then the tingling feeling erupted into an ice cold numbing sensation. It started at her wings, arms, and feet, and slowly made its way though her body. She drew in a sharp breath as it incased her heart and seemed to take control and force it to pump with icy cold fingers. Then she hear the five words she always dreaded to hear as it slipped into her ears. _My child, you have returned._

Her muscles fell out of her power and she was forced to stand up a menacing growl voicing from deep in her throat. Her eyes, though she was no longer the one looking out of them, narrowed and focused on the group of warriors.

"Oh no, guys look," Aelita pointed over in Kristina's direction, "Xana."

Everyone turned to see what she was talking about. Kristina had climbed up the tree directly above them. "Oh god," Max muttered, glancing at Grace he turned to Dan, "get her out of here!" he yelled. Dan nodded and picked up Grace, with a bit of difficulty, gained his wings and took off.

Kristina bared her fangs and jumped out of the tree after them. Max sprang up and with a burst of light found himself once again in his Lyoko form. He intercepted Kristina, grabbing her tail and giving it a yank. Kristina was jerked downward onto the ground and landed with a harsh thud. Max landed on his feet and was quickly aided by the others.

Odd managed to grasp her arm and send a relatively good sized shock up her arm and into her body. Kristina lashed out with her free arm and raked her claws down his arm burning the skin around it. Odd retaliated and Kristina was able to pull free of his grip and Max's grasp knocking both backwards in the process. Pushing off the ground she dodged a light bullet from Yumi and made for the sky.

"Follow her on the ground I'll take the sky," Max instructed, the rest nodded and shot off as Max took to the sky.

Kristina honed in on Dan's signature and turned to the east. As she made her turn she was hit from underneath. She doubled over and plummeted about 50 feet. She was hit by one of Yumi's light bullets. They now were filling the air and she could feel the winds picking up, going against her in attempt to slow her down.

She just barely brushed the treetops before she was assaulted from the side. Max's strong arms gasped around her wings and his claws dug into them. Kristina growled and grasped his upper arms burning her hand print into them. He grunted at the pain and kicked out at her with his feet yanking his arms out of her grasp.

Kristina fumbled a bit with her wings before reorganizing herself and diving down below the tree line. Max groaned not being able to maneuver in the trees and relied on flying above her instead. As they flew Kristina began to pick up speed her ability to dodge the trees coming from the dark power that controlled her.

Then Max lost her trail. "Dan look out I lost her!" he yelled frantically scanning the world below him for her.

A dark purple smoke explosion was all that answered. It clung to the air and was designed to make your enemy loose track of its target. It masked the smell and was impossible to see through.

A moment later Kristina sprang up from the cloud right in front of Max. He grabbed for her snagging her wing. His grasp was tighter than he expected though and he ripped clean trough her wing tearing a clean line down her wing. Kristina's face became frantic. The tear made it impossible for her to fly. So naturally, she fell.

Max dove after her not wanting her to kill herself in the landing. He plummeted through the smoke but then had to stop not knowing himself where the ground was.

Then he heard it: a yell, a sickening snap, and the impact of bodies crashing into the ground. He turned towards the sound afraid of what he might find. As the smoke cleared his fear became reality.

Dan was on his hands and knees crying over Grace's body. Kristina was sprawled on the ground not far from Grace's body. Xana had been knocked out of her, literally, and her breathing was shallow.

Max ran over to Grace's body. "Is she ok?" he panted.

Dan wiped the tears off his cheeks with the back of his hand and look up at Max. "Wh-wh-when Kristina fell sh-she fell on top of me. I'm fine but," he paused to take a shaky breath, "Grace landed underneath her in a weird position, and... and her neck, i-it sn-sna-snapped. She killed her Max, Kristina k-k-killed Grace."

Max froze and knelt down immediately checking to see if what Dan claimed to be true was, in fact, true. His hands felt for a pulse, there wasn't one.

He flicked his gaze towards Kristina and wordlessly got up to tend to her wounds. "I'm sorry Dan, it was my fault."

"What are you talking about? It was all Kristina's fault! I can't believe we ever trusted her! With her blood line someone was bound to die!" Dan snapped raising to his feet.

"I was the one who ripped her wing like that! Don't take it out on her, she didn't ask to be like this! She didn't pick to be controlled by that damn virus!" Max snarled back getting defensive.

Dan retaliated. "I'm sorry, I know, but it's so easy to blame her."

"Yah well, just lay off for a bit ok, if she remembers that she was the one who did this than she's gonna beat herself up and I don't want to have to deal with that."

"I'm the one with the dead girlfriend." Dan barked. Max knelt down to Kristina ignoring Dan's last comment.

His hands traced the outline of her body to better his sense of her injuries. "Well if it makes you feel better," Max said, "Kristina isn't far off." she had broken both of her legs, fractured her skull, broken two ribs, her left arm was bent at an impossible angle and was obviously snapped, and she was covered from head to tow in bleeding cuts.

"Help me move her into my lap," Max said moving Kristina onto her back. He was careful not to hurt her organs, which were remarkably unscathed, as he did so.

Dan snorted, "that evil little twit? I don't think so. She can die in the spot!" he spat.

"Will you stop thinking about anyone but yourself?' Max asked, now thoroughly ticked off.

Dan didn't respond right away, he just turned back to Grace's body looking back at it solemnly. "It's just hard to think of her not... not alive. It was like the dream we both had," Dan turned to look at Max, checking to see if his friend was paying any attention.

Max looked down at the weak girl in his lap. He remembered the dream, he remembered it well. It was his first time he had ever seen her. Her small 8-year-old self, much different than she was today, that air of pure innocence still clung to her body. Quickly after her first meeting with them that innocence had been shattered, and Kristina had been forced to grow up quickly.

The thing that he remembered most though, were her eyes. They were so different than they were now; they had been frightened and amazed all at the same time. He wouldn't learn for quite a bit longer that the look was really just because she'd never seen anyone like them before.

"Yah, I remember." he mumbled back setting himself into his healing work.

"Ever wonder if there was any truth behind it?"

Max paused as Kristina started to stir. She moaned, though it was more like a whimper than anything, and her eyes opened slowly. "It hurts," she complained like a three year old.

"I know, I'm healing you now," he whispered gently. Kristina squirmed, a meek attempt to retaliate to the healing. "Hold still, its gonna be ok, don't make me immobilize all your muscles" Max warned his tone as firm as his hold.

"Define o..." and she stopped, froze in place, and a scared look filled her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Max asked alarmed by her sudden change in disposition. Kristina didn't respond verbally. She jumped out of Max's arms, and turned to see Grace's immobile body.

"No," she whispered so weakly it was barely audible, even to Dan's ears. Crawling, to the best of her ability, she reached Grace. Her friends face was chalk white, and her skin ice cold. She reached out a tentative finger so feel for a pulse, there wasn't one.

She turned back to Max who was looking sympathetically over his shoulder, "what happened? Did I do that?" her voice choked at the words.

Max hesitated, "Kristina you were under Xana's control, and..."

"And you killed her." Dan retorted sharply, his eyes like daggers.

"Dan!" Max hissed, "It wasn't like that." He turned back to Kristina, "you fell after I tore your wing, and you fell on top of her. If anyone's to blame it's me." Max could feel her emotions plummet into a puddle of despair.

"Doesn't matter," she breathed, her eyes brimming with tears, "if I wasn't alive she wouldn't be dead."

**Sad…… anyway I already have the new chapter already typed up so yay!**

**purpletail**


	19. Revival

**See I'm not really dead, nor have all my fingers fallen off thus preventing me from typing. I'm just in my first year of high school at a private school… and I'm also leasing a horse… so I'm too busy to do much but school related things and breath.**

**Disclaimer: I woke up this morning to find that my dad bought be CL for Christmas. NOT**

The gray floor was neither warm nor cold, it was just simply there.

A fog, well it was the best way to describe the strange curtain of cloud, was drifting in the air. It moved away when you went to touch it, as if it was afraid of you, as if it was alive.

As she sat up she realized that she was being watched. Two figures were standing over her.

One female, who was dressed in an all white dress from what she could tell, was kneeling next to her. Upon seeing Grace's eyes flitter open a great grin broke over her face. "She's awake!" Her cheery voice, like the jingling of little bells, cheered.

"Is she ok?" a deeper, calmer female voice asked. This one was clad in black and stood above Grace. This person was obviously less tentative than the first.

"Of course she's ok Ravana, she's awake!" Whoever the first person was, they were obviously too energetic for their own good.

"Which of her emotions gave you Hyper's potion?" the duller, less enthusiastic voice asked.

"None! I'm just so happy she's ok! We're gonna be ok!"

By that point Grace was more confused, and positive that she was dreaming, that she had been thirty seconds go.

At that, second one of them noticed that she was sitting up. Whether or not it was a good thing that it was the hyper one, she wasn't sure.

The one who had been squealing moments earlier was now clinging to Grace's body as if it was a flotation device and she was drowning.

"Stella, you're gonna choke her," the girl that Grace assumed was named Ravana said, almost no tone of emotion lingered in her voice.

Grace who was just recovering her voice looked quizzically at the two girls before speaking. "Who the heck are you?"

Stella giggled, "We're your good and bad."

As Grace flicker her gaze to her other side where the one in black was standing she got her first real look at her bad side.

Black. Everything was black.

Everything from her tank top to her half long, half short skirt, to her thick army boots was black. The skirt was the real marvel to Grace. She had never seen anything quite like it. Long in the back, long enough to almost touch the floor. But the front was short, almost too short.

Not counting the clothes both girls had some form of brown hair and hazel eyes. Though they were of different shades or tints.

"You're me?" Grace pointed her right index finger at herself for emphasis.

The darker of the two rolled her eyes. "You should have stuck to the boys, because obviously school was never your stronger suit."

"I insult me?" Grace asked Stella.

Stella shook her head sadly her light brown curls bouncing lightly as she did, "You aren't exactly full of self adoration."

Grace tried to stand, and though it was painful, she found that she could. "So what happened? Why and I'm suddenly in this white-wash world talking to my two… halves?"

Stella went silent, and Ravana started to sulk choosing to divert all attention from the other two in the room.

"You died." Stella whispered. The fog seems to carry the words especially well.

The message was plain and simple, but it packed a punch. Grace stumbled backwards. "Who?... How?" she stuttered.

"Kristina fell and snapped your neck," Ravana said through clenched teeth.

"On purpose?" Grace asked, still dazed from the sudden impact of the simple fact that she had died.

Stella let out a big sigh of relief, "thank God no."

All at once a wave of pain crashed over Grace's body. Her neck was hurting her the most, forcing her to lie down and keep her neck a still as possible. It was hard, the floor was unforgiving, and the rest of her body wasn't without its fare share of the pain either.

"She's slipping back," Ravana said, only slight worry creasing her voice.

-------------Ice------------

Pain throbbed through every one of the dragons, whether physical or mental.

Dan spat the blood droplets away that were dripping into his mouth as he ran, Kristina was staggering just ahead of him, all the energy almost completely drained from her system.

Still, the trees flashed by them in an unimaginable speed. Gasping and spitting Dan tried to ignore the raw, fleshy, back of his throat that was ragged and painful from the blood dripping down and his battering gasps for air.

Kristina knew it was only a matter of time before she was caught, and after that she didn't want to comprehend what tortures would be planned for her.

Groaning, Dan's mind reeled with the possible, painful things he could do to Kristina as a form of fuel for his ever-fading energy. The plan was formed completely in his mind, he wanted her to die feeling the pain he was dealing with, or as close to that as possible. First he would carve _**Betrayal**_on both her wings, slowly so that each letter would have its own separate pain, next her cheeks would be sliced from her ear to about mid-cheek as he marked her as his pray.

With each step his plans grew more elaborate, more dangerous, and more time consuming.

The forest gave way, and there, about thirty feet away from Kristina was safety. The safety came up about thirty feet too short.

Before she could take another step a great weight was on top of her. Accompanying the weight was certain doom.

---------Darkness-------

Yumi was bent over him healing him to the best of her ability. Max had been training her on the side and she was a quick study. Max could already feel his energy returning o him.

A flicker of consciousness twanged through Grace's body.

The signs were small, almost nonexistent, but they were strong enough for Max to notice. Though he couldn't feel it like Dan or Kristina might have been able to, but she could sense more life in the area than before.

Max shifted his weight so he could see in the direction of her body.

The color was coming back to her cheeks, and a faint rising and falling of her chest was becoming more and more obvious.

Yumi's gaze flicked over towards Grace as well, "do you sense that?" She asked, her voice week as if she couldn't believe what she was feeling.

Max scurried as fast as he could over towards the body, "yah."

"How is that possible?" Yumi had already gotten to her feet and was working basic healing supports into Grace's body.

"It," Max stopped to catch his breath, the short crawl had winded him more than it should have. "It's rare, and I'm not sure how she got the power to do it, but it's called last chance.

"If a dieing healer can access enough energy, which is very rare, they can jumpstart a kind of an energy that heals the potentially fatal, or in Grace's case, fatal and gives the body time to heal and recover.

"In the whole history of Lyoko, well anything that's in the book, it's only happened once and it was a long time ago.

"But what I don't understand is how she pulled it off, if she was dead."

Grace's eyes remained closed, but her breathing became steadier.

"Do you think Dan will stop attacking Kristina now?" Yumi asked.

"I'm not sure."

Grace's eyes opened at the end of Max's sentence. Her eyes were immediately as large as saucers and she took gasping breaths as if she had just been drowning. Yumi grabbed the poor girl to keep herself from hurting one of her other wounds.

"What happened?" she choked.

"You died," came Max's reply.

--------Light--------

Kristina felt the blood starting to pour out of her wing and the last licks of life keeping her alive. At this point she was prepared to die, and expecting it, but if there was one thing she was going to do is go down fighting.

Pumping all of her fire energy to her back she tried to burn him off. Remembrance rushed back to her when his hold on her body didn't loosen, darkness absorbed all element powers.

In a meek attempt to remove her attacker she pushed with her good arm off the ground and rolled onto her back. When she hit the ground without him on her back she was thoroughly stunned.

"Run Kristina," Ulrich's voice made her realize what had happened.

"I can't," Kristina murmured, "I can't move."

"Well try!" Ulrich grunted as he thrust his sword through Dan's wing. Dan yowled in pain and grabbed for the weapon.

Kristina tried to, but this time she just couldn't move. "I can't," she cried out again.

----------Fire-----------

"So what's going on? Why do you look like you went through a paper shredder?" Grace asked totally confused.

"Just stay here," He grumbled as he unfurled his wings and jumped into the air, energy renewed.

-------------Ice------------

Kristina had enough energy to roll over so she could pin her wing to the ground and slow the bleeding. If she made it out of this alive she was going to count every single one of her lucky stars every single night.

"Damn it Kristina get up," a sincerely pissed off voice, Max no doubt, came from her right.

"I can't," Kristina huffed.

A cry from Ulrich sounded in the woods, he wasn't doing well, not like Kristina expected him to be able too. Dan was ten levels over Ulrich, Ulrich had no chance what so ever with that going against him.

"It's a damn good thing your light," Max growled as he picked up Kristina and shoved off the ground.

"Put me down!" Kristina screeched, "there's no way you can out fly Dan carrying me."

As she finished her statement Dan's dark energy crisped the tips of Kristina's hair.

"And now you owe me a hair cut if I live long…" Kristina had no choice but to surrender to Max's powers as he put her to sleep.

Using Max's temporary distraction Dan threw a chakram through his wing. Max snarled and fell. His body instinctively curled to protect Kristina. After he made she was going to be protected in the impact he spread out what he could of his wings to slow the fall.

The branches of the trees scratched as his sides and pierced his wings as she fell through the tree line. The ground came as a harsh reality to his back. Max grunted as the wind was knocked out of him. He sputtered for a moment before catching it once again.

Just in time for Dan to land hard on his tail. "what are you? Her body guard/" he spat.

"If you would take time to notice, Grace is alive, reach out for her, she's not dead." Max hoped that pleading with him would bring him to his senses. It was all he could do at this point, part of him wouldn't let him leave Kristina in danger of attack, so he couldn't get up.

"You liar," Dan said leaping at Kristina who was nestled, unconscious in Max's arms.

Max rolled throwing himself in front of the blow. Dan gripped onto his back and Max screamed out in pain. Blood leaked from the caw marks that Dan was carving into Max's back.

The scream startled Kristina out of her healing induced sleep. She blinked and upon seeing Dan on top of Max she screamed. She didn't know what else to do, her mind had been fogged by the dose of healing that had been placed in her system.

"stop!" she yelled. "just stop!" her voice cracked into a sob. And she grabbed onto Dan's wing her sadness quickly becoming rage. Shoving max to the side, a little more roughly then she intended, she dragged and flung Dan into the tree beside her. Dan's head made contact to the tree with a sickening crack. He fell to the ground, breathing, but blacked out.

Kristina broke back into a sob and fell to her knees. Everything was just too much. Suddenly gentle fingers gripped her shoulder and she leaned backwards on who ever it was trying to comfort her. A flash of blonde hair told her it was Max and she instantly relaxed like she used to, somehow his presence calmed her just enough in any situation.

A groan from Dan's limp form made them both jerk back to reality. His wounded wing twitched slightly and he looked up, his long shaggy black hair draping into his eyes as he glared at his two fellow dragons. Clenching his teeth he staggered to his feet and stood their breathing heavily and swaying with his back hunched in agony as his body dripped blood from various wounds.

"Dan…" Max started to say hesitantly crawling forward.

Dan growled a warning and stretched his clawed fists in warning making Max stop in his tracks and sink down lower in defeat. It seemed as if the whole forest was waiting with it's breath held in anticipation. The only sound was Dan's wheezing gasps as he shook with fury and pain, both emotional and physical.

Minutes later Max tried again, this time he kept his eyes locked on the ground as he whispered, "Dan…Danny she's alive…"

In response Dan spat a wad of saliva and blood in front of Max before hissing "impossible."

"but it's n…" Max started but Dan cut him off,

"don't lie to me, she's dead!" he screamed hysterically.

Suddenly Max's back went rigid and he stood stiffly, at full height he came up to eyebrows but he glared defiantly into his best friends dark eyes before spitting in disgust at his feet. "If you don't have the confidence or strength you need to believe that the girl you claim to care about so much is alive then so be it, but don't take it out on me and Kristina…on us…it's not our fault that your too scared to even sense that her heart is beating again…for you…" Max said, a note of embarrassment at his sentimental speech but pretty much hidden in a layer of frustrated rage.

Turning his back on Dan Max walked back to Kristina and knelt down to her broken level. She was out cold again, but after gently placing his hand on the side of her neck her icy blue eyes opened and she smiled weakly at him.

"How are you doing?" he asked calmly, a soft side to his voice that she hadn't heard in a while.

"Fine…" she said blushing slightly at his concern and how close he was. "What about you?" she asked automatically, feeling slightly awkward at how suddenly this tender conversation had come up in the middle of trying to prevent one of their best friend from killing them.

"Fine…" Max responded as well, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

Suddenly a gasp came form behind him and he whipped around in time to see Dan's knees give out and him crumple to the ground, his lyoko form melting away as he did so.

"She's…no…she can't be…" Dan was stuttering, now on his hands an knees, his whole body shaking violently.

"Dan?" Max asked moving over to be in front of him.

He got no response besides Dan looking up at him with his eyes clouded slightly.

-------------Ice------------

"Yumi…what happened after I…died?" Grace asked, the word 'died' feeling strange in her mouth when talking about herself.

"well…long story short…Dan went crazy and is now on a killing rampage although his initial target is Kristina." Yumi said brushing a strand of black hair out of her face as she said it as if she were talking about yesterday's homework.

"What?! Why?!" Grace asked sitting up so fast that she got dizzy and had to lean up against the tree that Yumi had propped her up against again.

"You'd be surprised what that kid would do for you…you're a lucky girl to have someone who cares about you that much." Yumi said smiling fondly at a nearby tree as if she were picture herself somewhere else.

"How can you daydream in a time like this?" Grace asked shocked at how calm Yumi was.

"Look…it's all I can do to prevent myself from freaking out." Yumi said finally making eye contact with Grace to show her the tears that were leaking out of the corners of her eyes.

Finally Grace understood, "Ulrich went to help stop Dan didn't he…" she said hesitantly.

Yumi nodded before adding quietly, "he went by himself…"

"Yumi…I'm so sorry…I…" Grace stopped not sure as to what to say.

"it's fine…" Yumi said a little to quickly and Grace took the hint that she didn't want to talk anymore.

After a few minutes of looking at a piece of moss Grace's thoughts began to wander in the direction she had been trying to be avoiding, but having nothing better to do she allowed it to. She began to picture all the horrible things that could be happening to her friends as she just sat there and twiddled her thumbs.

'_I wish I could do something to help…'_ she thought helplessly.

In desperation Grace reached out for any of the others. With a jolt she felt her mind brush off of Max's mind and she heard his disgust at something that had just happened. next she touched Kristina's mind but it was pretty much empty suggesting she was out cold which made Grace begin to worry all the more. Then she reached out for the one person she suddenly had to talk to no matter what – Dan.

A few seconds later she reached him, his mind was clogged with depression and blind anger, it made her shiver at how exotic and confusing his thoughts were to her. Gently she began to prod at him, knowing he was going to somewhat numb at first. After a few tried she felt that filmier click that happened whenever she mind-spoke to him and she hesitantly began to speak.

"_Hey…"_ she said the first thing that came to mind although I was completely inappropriate for the given situation.

"_Danny…please answer me…"_ she said after a few seconds and waited, her heart beating uncontrollably, reminding her of the first time Dan had admitted his feelings for her.

"_Grace?"_ his response finally came, quiet and confused, but there non-the less.

"_Danny, what's going on? Where is everyone?"_ Grace asked quickly, concern for the others taking over first.

"_Grace…your alive…?"_ Dan said so quietly Grace could hardly hear him.

"_Yes, I'm alive, now please…where is everybody else?"_ Grace questioned impatiently, her eyes squeezed shut as she willed them all to be alright.

"_They're fine…what about you?"_ Dan responded slowly as if he were in a daze.

Calming down, Grace let herself slip into the dizzy pleasure of hear his voice once more. _"well…I was worried sick…but now I'm just pleasantly flustered. How are you?"_ She responded with a sigh.

"_a little ashamed…but other then that..."_ Dan responded and Grace could tell he was still a little shocked.

"_Dan…why don't you and the others come back…please…I want to see you all…now."_ Grace said, suddenly needing to see her friends faces especially Kristina and Dan's.

"_Alright…me too."_ Dan responded, and after a slight hesitation of not wanting to break the connection he pulled away and Grace opened her eyes.

-------------Ice------------

Kristina watched helplessly as Max shouted at his shaking friend. Dan wasn't responding or even hinting that Max existed. All he did was sit there on his hands and knees with his head hanging downward and his whole body trembling uncontrollably. Suddenly he looked up, his eyes bright and misty.

"You're right." He said a grin stretching across her angular features.

"About what?" Max asked in bewilderment.

"She's…alive."

Taking in a sharp breath Kristina strained to hear what else was being said as she tried to comprehend what was really going on. Unfortunately for her there was nothing else said.

"Excuse me, but am I missing a piece of very, VERY important information?" Kristina groaned from her place as a pathetic heap in the clearing's dirt.

"Kristina I…" Dan started but she cut him off,

"I said…am I missing a piece of very, VERY important information? NOT can I have an apology." She snapped in frustration.

"Yes you are." Dan snapped back, clearly pissed that his humble apology was cut off completely.

"Well…?" she waited.

"Well what?" Dan asked choosing to piss her off more.

"That's enough…Kristina…Grace is alive…it's hard to explain so don't waste your breath and our time asking as to how." Max said, getting quite fed up with their fighting.

Kristina spluttered in shock before bursting into tears. Rolling his eyes Dan turned to max and said, "she's all yours…but we have to go back to Grace and Yumi…I'll go find Ulrich while you…deal with her."

Max nodded and brushed past Dan who ran into the woods from which he had come.

"Hey…usually when something good happens you smile…not cry." Max said sitting down next to Kristina who instantly buried her head in his neck and continued her sobbing.

They sat that way for a few minutes before she was able to speak and even then they sat in silence, neither of them wanting to break the moment or lose the feeling of the other's body pressed against them. Suddenly Max kissed the top of her head and she looked up in shock. Their eyes met and for a brief moment it was as if they were back in time and sitting together on a bench at Kadic.

A crashing sound came from the woods, shattering the moment. Ulrich and Dan came staggering into the clearing, Dan with a new cut on his cheek, obviously from Ulrich's saber.

"I didn't know he was right in the head again." Ulrich said in his defense the minute Max raised an eyebrow at them.

"shut up…how would you react if Kristina killed Yumi?" Dan spat, obviously pissed at having had his face scarred again. All he got was Ulrich rolling his eyes and muttering something about '…I don't want to think about it…'

Finally Kristina spoke, having had a chance to catch he breath. "Dan…I'm really sorry…you had every right…it's my fault for being so goddamn weak and susceptible to Xana's power…I'm nothing but a threat."

"don't worry about it…it's…fine…we're still friends." Dan said, stumbling over his words and scuffing his feet in the dirt. Kristina smiled and looked down at her knees as well, feeling the slight awkwardness seep into her skin as well.

"Can we go now…?" Dan asked after a few seconds, obviously anxious to see Grace again.

"Sure, I'll carry Kristina." Max said, not waiting for any complaints before scooping her into his arms and taking off somewhat shakily into the sky.

Quickly Dan transformed and a loud shout of exuberant strength before leaping after his blonde haired friend, leaving Ulrich to run beneath them. The trio in the sky flew as fast as they could, bringing tears to their eyes, much to Kristina's discomfort seeing as Max's tears were dripping onto her skin.

"Max, your dripping on me…" she complained after a few seconds.

"Want me to slow down? I mean…Dan will get to Grace first…but…that doesn't matter." Max said teasingly, knowing Kristina hated to have a guy out do her in anything.

"No…I can deal." She mumbled, knowing he was teasing her.

-------------Ice------------

"What's taking them so long?" Grace complained to Yumi who was sitting next to her now that she knew Ulrich was ok.

"It's only been 45 seconds Grace…" Yumi said calmly, even though she also was anxious to see their friends and boyfriend.

"Oh…right…" Grace muttered blushing slightly. Her face was paler then before, hinting that her exhaustion was taking a toll on her, a few moments earlier she had transformed back to her human form much to her disappointment because now she could feel the cold.

A few minutes past before Grace dosed off and Yumi was left to watch out by herself. Doodling in the dirt she paused as the faint sound of fast paced footsteps came from the brush. Standing slowly she pulled out one of her fans and waited. Moments later Ulrich burst out of the trees and skidded to a panting stop a few feet away from her. At the same moment Max and Dan crashed down in a shower of pine needles and orange leaves, folding their wings as they landed. Max gently placed Kristina down much to her hidden disappointment and made sure she was comfortable before turning around to see where Yumi and Grace were.

"Ulrich!" Yumi jumped up from the ground first, and ran to Ulrich.

"Hey," he grunted as she rapped her arms around his neck, knocking him off balance.

"Oh I'm sorry," Yumi gasped, getting a better look at his blood stained clothes. He did look a little worse for wear, with tares on his clothes and cuts all over his body.

Ulrich smiled a crooked smile, "it's not as bad as it looks, Max is pretty talented."

"Growing up with me he had lots of practice," Kristina said her voice a bit raspy.

"Kristina are you ok?" Yumi left Ulrich and sat down her battered friend.

Kristina smiled, "I'm not dead, but I'll be recovering for a bit. Even dragons can get ruffed up to the point that they'll need some recovery time." Upon finishing her sentence Kristina shifted her gaze to Grace.

Grace hadn't said anything to Kristina yet. She was sill coiled into Dan's embrace like a snake who was freezing but has now found a source of heat. Kristina grunted and shifted her position so she'd be more comfortable.

"Where will you stay while you recover?" Max asked hoping she had idea. "We've been away from school for a long time, we're gonna get into a heap of trouble when we go back."

"The house," Kristina said, "the one we were at earlier, the abandoned one. It's name escapes me."

"The Hermitage?" Yumi asked.

"That's it," Kristina confirmed.

Max looked around the clearing, then up to the sky. "I'll take Kristina there, tell the others."

As Max bent down to pick up Kristina, Ulrich stopped him, "what about Aelita and Jeremie?"

"We left them back at school before we left," Yumi remembered.

"They must be worried sick by now," Kristina thought then adding, "where's Odd."

**A bit longer than usual but you guys disserve it. Merry Christmas!**


	20. Clarity

**I haven't posted this fast in a long time. I figure 'I'm going back to school tomorrow I might as well put something up before I disappear again'. So here I am hoping that my writing is up to par.**

**Disclaimer: despite what you all may think, I don't own CL**

"Odd! How could we do this? How could we forget him?" Yumi wondered, guilt washing over her.

Ulrich wandered closer to his girlfriend and hugged her around the middle. Resting his head on her shoulder he talked softly into her ear. "I'll go find Odd, I'll call you when I find something. He couldn't have gone far, after all he wouldn't dare be late for dinner." Ulrich was only satisfied when a small smile cracked across Yumi's face. When one finally did, he pecked a kiss on her neck and let go of her.

"I'll go find Odd, ok guys? I'll call you with an information." Ulrich smiled and looked over shoulder towards the two dragons on the other side of the clearing. "We'll bring him home safe."

Kristina smiled encouragingly, "you better, or when I get better you'll be hurting more than you were when Dan pounced on you."

"I will then," Ulrich waved before running into the bushes.

Yumi, Kristina, and Max watched as he disappeared. "Lets get out of here," Max said while shifting his hold on Kristina.

"Yah," Yumi agreed.

"Get either Dan or grace to give you a lift," Kristina offered. "It'll be faster."

"Ok," Yumi nodded.

The flight was short and the fresh air gave Kristina a little bit of a pick-me-up. Most of the ride was silent, and she whished it had stayed that way. Unfortunately Max asked her a question. "Do you ever whish things were like they used to be?"

"Which used to be?" Kristina asked, her voice soft.

"You're avoiding the question."

"I try not to think about it." The answer was honest enough. She knew it wasn't what he was looking for though.

"How does that seem to work for you?"

"You tell me."

Max smiled, and then replied. "Obviously not too well."

"What makes you say that?" Kristina asked quirking an eyebrow.

"You haven't asked me to move my hand yet."

Kristina visibly stiffened, suddenly aware of the placing of Max's left hand. The appendage in question was too close to her chest for comfort. "Move it before I disintegrate it." She growled.

"As you wish." Max let his hand slip to a more appropriate place.

"Can't you ever be proper?" Kristina snapped. She wasn't in a good mood, and didn't want to deal with Max's antics.

"Only when I want to be."

"You're an irritating twit, you know that?"

"An irresistible, irritating twit," Max corrected.

"You left out conceded."

"I wasn't talking about you." Max smirked, knowing he had won.

Kristina just blew off the comment, knowing that she wasn't going to win. Instead she opted to let the rest of the flight lull her to sleep.

----------Darkness----------

Odd awoke inside a dark, damp room. It smelled of mold mixed with a variety of other unpleasant odors. It was light, which was a plus, but there was only one window, allowing the corners to be shrouded in darkness.

He coughed, and rubbed his eyes. The thick air was hard to breath, and it stung his eyes a bit. Despite the sting he looked around the room. It was obviously not his dorm, or the lunchroom, and judging by the pounding in his head he didn't come here willingly.

There were two other people in the room, both unconscious. Odd recognized then immediately. "Jeremie, Aelita!" he crawled towards his friends. Neither of them responded to his call.

Both teens were lying, crumpled, on the floor. Aelita's arm was bent at an impossible angle, and Jeremie had a line of dried blood across his forehead. "Oh guys," his whispered as he gently shook their shoulders.

At the touch Aelita woke up. She groaned and tried to sit up. She managed with Odd's help but her facial expressions told Odd she was in pain. "My arm hurts," she said through gritted teeth.

"It's probably broken." Odd told her.

"Obviously."

"Let's find something to splint it with," Odd suggested as he started to crawl around the room. He hoped to find a scrap of wood, something to hold Aelita's arm steady.

"Over here," Aelita pointed to an old desk. It was missing three of its legs and the top part was split down the middle.

Odd moved over towards the desk and kicked at the remaining leg. It took a couple of tries but eventually the leg gave in. The sound woke Jeremie with a start.

"What's going on!" he asked once he had finally realized where he was.

"Not sure Einstein," Odd responded after he finished binding Aelita's arm. He had removed the string from his hood and used it to fasten the wood to Aelita's arm.

Upon seeing Aelita's arm Jeremie's face paled. "Aelita are you ok?"

"Yes Jeremie, I'm fine," Aelita assured him.

"No, no you're not, look at your arm." Jeremie continued to fuss over the pink haired girl. Aelita smiled at him and showed him her arm. Jeremie busily examined the job Odd did. "No, this is all wrong," Jeremie huffed.

"I did my best Jer," Odd defended crossing his arms.

"You should have woken me up first, I'm trained for this sort of thing." Jeremie said the anger tainting his voice.

"Jeremie, he didn't hurt me, I'm fine." Aelita told him.

Jeremie's face softened, realizing he had gotten a tad worked up. "I'm sorry Aelita but he could have made things worse."

"Don't say sorry to me, say it to Odd." Aelita used her left arm, the good one, to point in Odd's direction.

Jeremie looked over his shoulder at Odd, who was standing with his hands in his pockets. "Sorry Odd."

"It's ok Jer, I know how defensive you get over Princess." Odd smiled his classic grin as he said this. Jeremie muttered something in return but Odd couldn't hear it. "We need to get out of here." Odd pointed out.

Aelita nodded, "yah."

"There must be some way out of here." Jeremie pointed out.

"Wherever here is," Aelita sighed.

The three teens started to search, to the best of their ability, around the room. They were looking for anything that might be a door, a hatch in the floor, a hole in the wall, or a string hanging form the ceiling that might open an overhead compartment.

"Anything?" Odd asked after searching for what seemed like hours. He heard Aelita sigh from somewhere across the room.

"No," came her reply.

"Not a thing," Jeremie confirmed.

"Well, if we're stuck here, we might as well step into the light." Odd sighed as he moved over towards the lit portion of the room. The other two silently agreed and all together they sat on the cold cement floor.

"What do you think will become of us?" Aelita asked, worry tainting her voice.

"That all depends on how long it takes your friends to find you." A female's voice came from the one of the shadowed corners of the room. At the recognition of the voice, Odd's body stiffened.

------------Water------------

"Don't you dare drop me." Kristina growled as Max went to set her down on the lawn of the Hermitage.

"You do realize that would just create more work for me right?" Max tried to point out.

"Will you two stop squabbling?" Yumi asked from behind them.

"No." the answer came in unison.

"Have you ever seen two people like each other this much and still fight like cats and dogs?" Dan asked.

"Only they could pull it off," Grace agreed.

"Open the door." Kristina sighed in frustration as she clung to Max, using him to support her body.

Max rolled his eyes and obeyed.

------------Electricity-------------

"Hear that?" The huntress asked. She pointed a finger at the ceiling, "footsteps."

"So?" Odd asked. He had moved in front of Jeremie and Aelita, his body taking on a defensive stance.

"I can't have you going anywhere while I'm visiting the others." The girl smirked and raised her hand. Smoke leaked out from under her nails. The virus filled smoke moved across the floor.

"Move!" Odd ushered the other two away from the smoke.

"Moving is useless, it will find you." The huntress sneered and melted through a bolted door.

Soon enough the smoke caught up with Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita. The smoke grabbed at their ankles and wrists, pulling them to the ground with a thud. The restraints felt like hundred pound lead weights, preventing any movement.

"Damn." Odd cursed, scowling at the wall where the girl had melted into it.

------------Electricity-------------

"This place is duuuuu-sty," Kristina coughed as Max led her through the doorway. The only response she got was an eye roll from Max. Everyone else ignored her and found places to sit and wait for Ulrich to inform them on the where-abouts of their friends.

After about five minutes of complete silence Kristina and Grace said simultaneously, "I'm bored."

"Well find some way to entertain yourself." Max snapped, earning a glare from Dan who was holding Grace's waist possessively, as if he had no intention of letting her go.

A buzzing from Yumi's pocket moved everyone's attention to her, silencing the room. Yumi, anxious to hear from Ulrich, quickly removed her cell from its resting place, pushed the talk button, and answered it.

Everyone in the room knew something was wrong when Yumi's face fell. "Ok," she mumbled into the phone. Without bothering to say goodbye she hung up. "We have a problem," she said.

"Is everyone ok?" Max asked.

"Ulrich isn't sure, he couldn't find Odd, Jeremie, or Aelita. All of them have disappeared, or at least left the school grounds." Yumi's voice cracked as she explained the bad news.

Grace moved from Dan's grasp, with a bit of difficulty, and hugged Yumi. "It's gonna be alright, when Dan or Kristina are better we'll send them out to look for Odd and the others." Grace said, working in some healing magic to calm Yumi down.

"Why don't we find a more comfortable place to go, I, for one, don't wanna be a living crutch for the next hour or so." Max said as he started to move towards the other rooms in the house.

The search for a more comfortable spot took a little longer than expected. Kristina made sure that the fact was well known, she complained about it four times. They finally came upon an old bedroom. Max let Kristina lay down on the bed before sitting down himself. He too had taken some pretty hefty hits. His back ached and his wings, though they had healed and were useable, were still a bit sore.

"What would I do without you?" Kristina asked while she stared at the ceiling.

"Die probably," Max said as he lied down next to her.

"I feel like swiss cheese," she complained.

"Your wings look like it," Max commented, running his fingers over the wounds in her wing. The touch was calming to Kristina and she smiled as the warmth of the healing numbed her wing.

"Much better," she sighed, her voice sounding pleased.

The room stood in a comforting silence for a while. As usual Max was the first to talk. "When I saw you lying on the ground, and all the blood, I thought you were gonna die."

"I did too," Kristina answered truthfully. Her voice had turned sullen, along with the conversation.

"I didn't want to loose you." Max stopped his healing and softly moved Kristina's head so she was forced to look at him. He didn't move his hand from her chin when he had finished his task, and started to stroke her jawbone with his thumb.

She knew what he wanted to hear. She also knew what she wanted to say. Then there was what she should say. While the first two answers weren't very different, it was the third that was causing problems. Not wanting to say anything she'd regret she opted to say nothing at all.

Max opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by someone standing in the doorway. Lifting her head up Kristina saw grace leaning up against the door jam.  
"Am I interrupting something?" Grace asked. The comment didn't have a teasing tone to it.

"No," Max sighed, clearly disappointed that the answer wasn't yes.

Grace entered the room and set to work on Kristina's rather useless arm. Having two healers work at once was a strange sensation. Kristina could feel the warmth of Max's work on her wing, and the cooling feeling from Grace's. The two contradicted themselves.

"I'm sorry Dan flipped out like that," Grace said, her eyes a solid blue color.

"Me too," Kristina replied.

"She means, I accept your apology," Max translated.

"It's not really her apology to give, but I can't hold it against him." Kristina said. Her voice was steadily coming back to her as her strength returned. "Where is tall, dark, and evil anyway?"

"Apologizing to Ulrich, he showed up about a minute ago." Grace explained.

"I can't imagine Ulrich is in the best shape either," Max said, thinking out loud.

"Max can work on me, you should go tend to Ulrich and the others." Kristina offered.

"If you want," Grace smiled, "it's times like these that I wish Yumi was more thoroughly trained." She finished her statement as she left the room.

Kristina was watching Grace's feet as she left the room when her eyes caught something. Grace's weight had dislodged a floorboard. It moved only a centimeter, but it was enough to case alarm. "Max how old id this house?"

"I'm not sure, roll over I need to get your back."

Kristina didn't listen to him. Instead she got to her feet. Ignoring the pain her legs were enduring she crouched down by the loose board. "I hope we aren't gonna' fall through the floor." She wished.

"Kristina, lie back down you aren't in the shape to get up like that," max fussed as he walked over to support Kristina's body.

Using one of her claws she dislodged the floorboard. Thinking she was going to find mold, or rats she was surprised when that wasn't the case.

"What's all this?" Kristina asked as she picked up a plain leather bound notebook. Her body went ridged when she saw what was lying under the notebook. She dropped the book in shock and stared at the item. It was a photograph.

Max saw it too and took in and gasped. "That's you." He picked up the old photo. It was faded with age and lack of proper care. There were three people in the photo, one kid and two adults. They wee happily playing in a pile of raked leaves. A younger Kristina was throwing a clump of leaves at a young woman who looked a lot like Kristina. And the man, his eyes were gleaming happily. Those eyes were the exact same color as Kristina's.

Kristina stared at the picture confused. It wasn't possible. She had been born and raised on Lyoko. Before Max and the others found her she had never stepped a foot on earth. So obviously she didn't have parents, even if that's what the picture was suggesting.

Her head pounded with an intense force. The light started to hurt her eyes, and the room started to spin below her. Kristina squeezed her eyes shut and steadied herself with her hands.

"Kristina!" Max's voice sounded panicked.

The next thing she knew she was falling to the floor. A wave of memories came crashing down on her as she connected with the floor.

"Kristina this isn't funny!" Max called again.

"Mommy!" the young girl squealed with joy. "Daddy's gonna get me!"

The brown haired man was grabbing fistfuls of leaves and letting them fall easily over the young girls head. "The leaf monster is going to get you!" his deep voice said playfully.

The young girl ran into her mother's arms, still giggling uncontrollably. Her mother spun her around before facing the 'leaf monster'. "I banish thee to the depths of the sea, were your leaves can harm no one." She said in an overly dramatic voice.

"Nooooooo!" the 'monster' groaned and shrunk to the floor. "I'm melting!"

The memory faded and the lighthearted moment was tainted with darkness.

The girl was visibly older. But it was still obviously Kristina. She was running down a dark hallway her feet squishing in the blood soaked carpet. "Mommy!" this cry was panic-stricken. Tears streaked the girls face. Before her, her mother was lying on the floor, dead. Crimson wings sticking out of the woman's back, and her limbs were that of a dragon's. She was a dragon of lyoko.

"Daddy!" the father was grappling with a dark figure, no older than Kristina herself. The father was not of the lyoko bloodline it seemed. His arms were scratched and his shirt was bloodied.

"Run Kristina!" her father yelled as the person stabbed him in the back. He fell to the ground lifeless. Blood was pooling slowly around the body.

"NOOOO!" Kristina cried as the murderer pounced at her.

Tears streamed freely from Kristina's eyes when she regained consciousness. "She," Kristina gasped for air, "she killed them!"

Max, not exactly understanding what was going on, just gently picked up Kristina and pulled her into his lap. "It'll be ok." He murmured.

**This story is gonna' be one bad thing after another for a while… and I mean a really long time. So enjoy the precious fluffy moment while they last, because they won't be around for long.**

**purpletail**


	21. Death Wish

**I'm not dead. I only pretend ^^. So….enjoy the chapter all my old, and I hope still fateful, readers. **

Kristina spilled out the story of her memories in one garbled mess. She sobbed about her parents, and how the huntress had killed them. No one believed her, the huntress was way to young to have killed her parents and still be their age. Kristina shook her head; she was one hundred percent positive that it was the same person.

The discussion was shattered when a dagger imbedded itself in the wall above their heads. Everyone automatically shifted into a state of alertness. Ulrich and Grace turned around in the doorway and saw the huntress fingering more daggers. Her posture was relaxed; she clearly thought she was toying with them.

Kristina recognized the girl and flared to life. Her power levels went through the roof, fueled by newfound anger. Not capable of any comprehendible language, she just growled a low, menacing, growl.

"You're no match for me. I've taken down dragons with ten times your power." Her fingers tingled with dark magic as she spoke the words.

Kristina lunged at the girl before anyone could stop her. Everything fell into place, like dominos in a line, and soon everyone was fighting to the best of their ability.

Max, purely from instinct, dove after Kristina. Several years of dragging her out of fights had heightened his reaction to her impulsive behavior. He grabbed for her tail, hoping to bring her back before she was ripped to shreds. "You're gonna be killed!" He hissed as he brought her backwards, and out of striking range.

"Aw," the huntress cooed. "What do we have here?" She paused and walked around the room. Her every move made the others anxious, just because they believed that she didn't kill Kristina's parents didn't mean she wasn't a threat. "Fire and light, can't have one without the other can you?" her boots clicked on the floor, emphasizing the harsh silence. "If I put out the fire, what happens to the light?"

The comment hit home for Kristina. She struggled to get loose, but Max's strength outmatched hers. Thinking quickly she sunk her fangs into his arm. Howling Max released his hold on the young dragon.

Once freed from Max's hold Kristina once again lunged at the Huntress. Her hands were hot with power and where her hand met the girl's skin she left an ugly burn. The huntress hissed and threw a small dagger. The dagger sailed through the air nicking the side of Kristina's arm but not doing much damage.

Ulrich and Yumi tried to separate the two. Yumi shot bullets of light between them. The strong wind burst Ulrich formed snapped open the balls of light. The broken balls of light cast out sparkles. The light flared and stuck to the two teens. The glowing residue distracted the huntress long enough for Kristina to wrap her tail around her enemy's leg. With one strong pull the huntress was on the ground.

Dan reached out and tugged Kristina off of the dark girl. In that split second the Huntress rocked back and sprung back to her feet, daggers in her hand a split second later.

Ulrich and Yumi were quickly thrown to the side with bleeding arms and daggers imbedded in their skin. Yumi, being the conscious one of the two, reached and pulled a dagger from her left leg. Blood welled up from the deep gash and spilled onto the splintered wooden floor.

Grace managed to escape the immediate battleground and make her way to the two body's lying on the opposite side of the room. She had just laid her hand on Yumi's gash, in an attempt to heal it, when Max was thrown roughly across the room. He smashed into the wall just to Yumi's right. The collision left a dent in the old structure. He crashed to the floor and groaned.

Yumi knew there hadn't been enough time for anyone to heal properly. They were dropping like flies, already about half their numbers lay in a crumpled mess on the floor.

-------------Earth-------------

"This sucks." Odd spat. His mood was bleak, as was everyone else's.

"For once I have to agree with you Odd." Jeremie sighed. He was stuck on his hands and knees, a position he had obtained after his left foot got caught and he was brought crashing to the rather unforgiving cement floor.

Aelita, who was spread out on her back, sighed, "I feel rather useless like this."

Just after the statement a loud crash sounded above them. Odd and Jeremie turned their heads to the dark ceiling. "There up there," Odd stated. "I can feel them, and something's wrong."

"Well we can't do anything unless these things get removed." Aelita pointed out.

Odd looked around the room, hoping that by some strange miracle there would be something that could help their current position. Nothing.

"What we need is a giant electromagnetic field. These things are probably some form of electricity; they do originate from Xana after all. A giant pulse of electricity would disrupt their hold on us." Jeremie explained, hinting strongly at Odd.

A light bulb went off in Odd's head. "How do u make an electromag…thingy?"

"We'd need something that could produce a high wattage of electricity." Jeremie said.

"Like me?" Odd asked a hopeful tone creeping into his voice.

"Very much like you," Jeremie smiled as he said this.

"But a shock like that would do some damage to us too though." Aelita said.

"Your right," Odd sighed.

"We'd need a barrier to keep the shock off of ourselves but still hit the bonds." Jeremie said.

"How on earth are we going to do that?" Aelita asked as she started to pull at the dark cuffs.

-------------Darkness-----------

"You must have a death wish." The Huntress taunted Kristina as she repeatedly missed her target.

Kristina's claws dug into the old wood of the living room wall. Hissing and spitting with furry she removed her claws from the wood and leapt back at the dark huntress. This time her claws dug into flesh instead of wood.

A pile of red and black rolled across the floor. The two girls tumbled half the length of the room before the huntress grabbed a dagger and aimed for Kristina's neck. Kristina saw the shine of the blade a split second before the dagger bit into her skin. A sharp pain froze Kristina and her attacking came to an abrupt halt.

A scaled hand grabbed the back of Kristina's shirt. The next thing she knew the dagger had been removed from her neck and a large dose of healing magic was being pumped into her system. The healing magic took its effect and she dropped to the floor unconscious.

Dan held the Huntress by her throat, her feet nearly skimming the floor. The girl was almost helpless now, her various weapons lay scattered among the debris. "You have no idea what you've caused." His voice was stiff with anger. Unable to breath, the girl stared at Dan with her solid black eyes. Dan grinned, "you've lost."

The huntress smiled a devious smile. Her hands started to gather bits of dark energy from the air. The bits attached themselves to her, within seconds the huntress no longer looked like a girl.

Her body pulsed with energy, all facial features were covered in darkness. She dawned skeletal wings, a long skinny tail lined with small sharp spikes, and her hands looked more like scraggly claws than actual hands.

In shock Dan dropped the creature and watched as she nearly doubled in size.

"Let's get out of here!" Dan yelled as he picked up an unconscious Ulrich and headed towards he door.

-------------------Electricity------------------

"Aelita!" Odd realized.

"What?" she asked half-heartedly.

"My little earth friend," Odd smiled, "can you cover you and Jeremie in dirt while I blow off the restraints?"

"I'm not a level ten Odd." Aelita pointed out.

"Times of dire need, don't you remember?" Odd asked. He could feel the power of his friends starting to dwindle. Something was utterly wrong.

"I…I don't think I can," Aelita stammered her eyes wide. She wanted desperately to help, but she seriously thought that her powers weren't strong enough.

"You have to try princess," Odd prompted. Ulrich and Yumi just went out, their sensors fogged by unconsciousness.

"Don't push her Odd, she can only do what she can do." Jeremie said his voice defensive.

"Jeremie I can take care of myself," Aelita said, her tone hard, but not too loud.

Odd felt Grace get hit, she must have been wounded, but not enough to knock her out. The pain of knowing his friends were suffering and he was stuck in this wrenched basement was eating at his mind. He pulled harder on the bands around his wrist in frustration.

"Odd that's never going to work," Jeremie grunted.

"Like you're much use. " Odd snapped back.

"Fighting isn't going to solve anything!" Aelita snapped..

"Being stuck is making us irritable, like a rat in a cage." Jeremie let his voice grow a soft tone. "Sorry Odd, I don't do well in captive situation."

"I didn't notice," Odd mumbled sarcastically

Two of the six signals that pin-pointed the position of the others faded from Odd's field of sensory.

"They're loosing." Odd whispered. His mind started to clog with defeat. It was hard to think straight and focus on the problem at hand. He was so attuned to the feelings of the others, so tied, that it was almost as if he was being beaten himself.

Sparks started to crawl across his skin, the mental strain causing the cap on his powers to come uncorked. As the small streams of power escaped to the floor they collided with the bonds holding him down. The strings of dark electrical magic started to weaken.

Panic started to rise as the impending doom of the others charged his powers and made his mind churn. He couldn't help it, the calling to release his power was too great. Odd knew that if he let the power take over, the others would suffer from the extreme blast, even kill them.

"Aelita," he called, barely able get his words out through his clenched teeth. "Protect you and Jeremie."

"I told you I can't." She replied.

"Do it now!" Odd yelled, the streams of electricity growing by the second. Aelita faltered for a single second. Within that second Odd lost control, and a dome of blinding electricity engulfed the house.

**Dun dun dun. I actually already have at least the next chapter types if not the next to. So while I'm on vacation I should be able to update as least this story.**


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